Inquiry urged into 'barbaric practice'

A call has been made for the Taoiseach to support and resource a public inquiry into a procedure used in Irish hospitals and described in the Dáil as "mutilation" and a "barbaric practice".

Sinn Féin's leader in the Dáil, Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, asked for the inquiry into symphysiotomies - a practice used in hospitals from the 1950s until the 1980s where, during obstructed labour, women's pubic bones were sawn through either immediately before or, in some cases, after the birth of their child.

The Taoiseach said the Minister for Health was examining a report from the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and would "bring forward his conclusions".

The Department's chief medical officer had been working on the issue since 2001, he added. The procedure, used instead of Caesarean sections, was "inflicted" on 343 women at Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda and was used in the national Maternity Hospital and the Coombe in Dublin, said Mr Ó Caoláin.

Describing the practice as barbaric and mutilation, he said it was used because "a very strict Catholic ethos operated" in these hospitals that women "should go through this procedure rather than have Caesarean sections".

The thinking was that after undergoing Caesarean sections, women would "look at procedures of birth control or the option of sterilisation". Performance of a symphysiotomy in a first pregnancy often resulted in a permanent widening of the pelvic region, making Caesareans unnecessary at subsequent births.

Mr Ahern said the institute had advised that "excellent results were claimed for the procedure at a time when Caesarean sections had a high mortality rate". He added that the institute said complications in properly conducted cases were rare. "I am advised that we must be very cautious about judging procedures and interventions which were used in previous generations, in the light of current knowledge and experience."

Mr Arthur Morgan (SF, Louth) said that even back then, the procedure was criticised. Mr Ó Caoláin said the last time the issue was raised in the Dáil, the party got the same response, simply repeating a statement from the institute in 2001.

Mr Ahern repeated that the Minister had the report and was prepared to discuss it with Mr Ó Caoláin.