Professor Sabaratnam Arulkumaran:

I will start with Savita's case. It was very clear to me during the inquiry that the thing preventing the physician from proceeding was the legal issue because she repeatedly said she was concerned about the legal issue. I will give a little bit of explanation. The mother was sick. There was no question about that. Even at the last minute they were using a hand probe to see whether the baby's heartbeat was present or not. Any junior doctor would have said it was a serious condition and they must terminate. They were just keeping her going because of the mere fact the heartbeat was there. The legislation played a major role in making a decision. Somebody else might say they would have done the termination much earlier. That is a personal interpretation. It is why things are made difficult because of the legislation.

With regard to the second question on the socioeconomic situation, one has to look at each individual mother's case separately. One mother might be a single mother and might have difficulty in managing or feeding the children. Another might have been using contraception or experiencing physical or other abuse by the husband. As medical physicians, we have to take the socioeconomic background into consideration when a mother makes a request.