Dublin, Ireland - One of the ways a government can
claim properly to be representing its people is by holding up a
magnifying glass to bad things that happened in the past.
In the UK, for example, all sorts of inquiries have been held recently into issues ranging from systematic abuse of children in care to the deaths of football fans in a crush at a ground.
These things provide for a sense of justice for the victims, if they are held properly and dispassionately, and they suggest that the past isn't forgotten.
But in Ireland at the moment, a very different sort of thing is happening. It concerns the treatment of hundreds of women, now middle aged or old, who as young mothers to be were maimed by their own doctors in maternity hospitals.
The women are all survivors of a dreadful practice called symphysiotomy, in which expectant mothers were sawed open as a medical alternative to Caesarian section in hospitals where, it is assumed, Catholic thinking outweighed medical logic.
Without going into all the background, you can catch up o
But the compensation scheme has been roundly condemned by civil rights campaigners as a way of protecting the abusers of the women from legal action, because any woman who signs up to the scheme is forced to indemnify the most amazingly long list of people and institutions from any legal redress.
Here's the official list of indemnified parties, which covers the state, senior people in government, and the entire medical profession conceivably linked to symphysiotomy, as well as sections of the Catholic church:
Ireland.
The Attorney General.
The Minister for Health.
The Minister of any Government Department in the State.
Any other organ of the State.
The State Claims Agency.
The Health Service Executive.
All former Health Boards in the State.
All local authorities in the State.
All hospitals, nursing homes, former hospitals or former nursing homes in the State
In the UK, for example, all sorts of inquiries have been held recently into issues ranging from systematic abuse of children in care to the deaths of football fans in a crush at a ground.
These things provide for a sense of justice for the victims, if they are held properly and dispassionately, and they suggest that the past isn't forgotten.
But in Ireland at the moment, a very different sort of thing is happening. It concerns the treatment of hundreds of women, now middle aged or old, who as young mothers to be were maimed by their own doctors in maternity hospitals.
The women are all survivors of a dreadful practice called symphysiotomy, in which expectant mothers were sawed open as a medical alternative to Caesarian section in hospitals where, it is assumed, Catholic thinking outweighed medical logic.
Without going into all the background, you can catch up o
But the compensation scheme has been roundly condemned by civil rights campaigners as a way of protecting the abusers of the women from legal action, because any woman who signs up to the scheme is forced to indemnify the most amazingly long list of people and institutions from any legal redress.
Here's the official list of indemnified parties, which covers the state, senior people in government, and the entire medical profession conceivably linked to symphysiotomy, as well as sections of the Catholic church:
Ireland.
The Attorney General.
The Minister for Health.
The Minister of any Government Department in the State.
Any other organ of the State.
The State Claims Agency.
The Health Service Executive.
All former Health Boards in the State.
All local authorities in the State.
All hospitals, nursing homes, former hospitals or former nursing homes in the State
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