Own up: The State has no ownership of women’s bodies

IRELAND could just about live in the bubble of women having no choice — but a woman unable even to choose not to die has turned that smug, little, self-satisfied world upside down.

The Savita Halappanavar scandal has shown this Government, and the HSE it runs, to be cold, incompetent and inhumane.

As grieving widower Praveen complained that medical records given to his lawyers logging his wife’s final days in hospital meticulously listed every piece of toast she asked for, but, strangely, did not mention her repeated pleas for the termination she believed could have saved her life, the HSE used the ugliest language to insist Ms Halappanavar’s records were its “property” and only they had “ownership” of them.