It is often asserted, even in the face of contrary evidence,
by the believers of course, that the ‘truly religious’ people do not do any ham
to others; that the terrorists are a misguided lot; that those who incite communal violence are in the grip of momentary passion; that the believers who
commit human sacrifice and those who refuse to provide proper medical assistance
to their nears and dears on religious ground are illiterate people; that these ‘aberrations’
cannot be used as a yardstick to measure the true nature of religion, which is
essentially spiritual and hence benign, we are told.
by the believers of course, that the ‘truly religious’ people do not do any ham
to others; that the terrorists are a misguided lot; that those who incite communal violence are in the grip of momentary passion; that the believers who
commit human sacrifice and those who refuse to provide proper medical assistance
to their nears and dears on religious ground are illiterate people; that these ‘aberrations’
cannot be used as a yardstick to measure the true nature of religion, which is
essentially spiritual and hence benign, we are told.
Well, we reproduce a news item that shows, yet again, the darker
side of religion. It shows, starkly, what grave harm people inspired by ‘true
faith’ in religion do to others even in ‘normal times’.
side of religion. It shows, starkly, what grave harm people inspired by ‘true
faith’ in religion do to others even in ‘normal times’.
Indian woman dies after being refused abortion
A woman of Indian origin has died
after doctors in Ireland refused to perform an abortion, telling her that “this
is a Catholic country”, sparking widespread outrage and renewed calls for
immediate reforms to the Irish law to allow termination if the life of the
mother is at risk.Savita Halappanavar (31), who was
a dentist, was 17 weeks pregnant when she died from septicaemia, according to
an autopsy carried out two days after her death on Oct 28. Her family said she
asked several times for her termination as she had severe back pain and was
miscarrying but doctors at University Hospital Galway refused on the grounds
that abortion was illegal in Ireland.Her husband Praveen Halappanavar
said he was certain that his wife would have still been alive if the
termination had been allowed.It was her first pregnancy, he
said, and she was “on top of the world” before she started suffering back pain.
When the pain persisted, she asked her consultant if she could be “induced” but
was told “no”.
Savita Halappanavar “They said unfortunately she
can’t because it’s a Catholic country. Savita said to her [consultant] she is
not Catholic, she is Hindu, and why impose the law on her. But she said, ‘I’m
sorry, unfortunately it’s a Catholic country,’ and it’s the law that they can’t
abort when the foetus is [alive],” he said.The hospital has launched an
internal investigation in addition to a separate inquiry ordered by Ireland’s
Health Service Executive.Mr. Halappanavar recalled that
Savita “was so happy and everything was going well” until she was admitted to
hospital with back pain.“On the Saturday [Oct 20] night
everything changed. She started experiencing back pain so we called the
hospital, the university hospital… I got a call at about half [past] twelve
on the Wednesday night that Savita’s heart rate had really gone up and that
they had moved her to ICU. “Things just kept on getting worse and on Friday
they told me that she was critically ill.” Savita died on Sunday.Ireland Prime Minister Enda Kenny
did not rule out an independent inquiry as pro-choice groups demanded immediate
changes to the law.“It would be very appropriate
that we don’t rule anything out here, but there are two reports and
investigations going on at the moment,” Mr. Kenny said.Ireland’s strict anti-abortion law
means that women routinely go abroad for abortion. Earlier this year, the
government set up an expert group to make recommendations in response to a
judgment of the European Court of Human Rights judgment that Ireland had failed to implement
existing rights to lawful abortion where a mother’s life was at risk.
Left-wing MPs Clare Daly and Joan
Collins, who had introduced a bill in Parliament earlier this year to allow an
abortion in specific life-threatening circumstances, said that had their
proposals been accepted, Savita would have been alive.“A woman has died because Galway University
Hospital refused to
perform an abortion needed to prevent serious risk to her life.“This is a situation we were told
would never arise. An unviable foetus — the woman was having a miscarriage —
was given priority over the woman’s life, who unfortunately and predictably
developed septicaemia and died,” Ms Daly said.
We do not think that the medical
fraternity who refused to extend the required medical facility to that
unfortunate woman are ‘bad people’; except for their religiosity they are ‘good
people’. It is their ‘true faith’ in religion inspired by their faith (not just
‘as small as the mustard seed’ as their holy book demands, but ‘enough faith to move a mountain’) in their compassionate
god that prevented them from extending medical help that was well within
their reach.
fraternity who refused to extend the required medical facility to that
unfortunate woman are ‘bad people’; except for their religiosity they are ‘good
people’. It is their ‘true faith’ in religion inspired by their faith (not just
‘as small as the mustard seed’ as their holy book demands, but ‘enough faith to move a mountain’) in their compassionate
god that prevented them from extending medical help that was well within
their reach.
As Steven Weinberg said, “With or without
religion, good
people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion”.
religion, good
people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion”.
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