Mexico 'freak show' woman buried

13 February 2013 Last updated at 10:04 GMT Julia Pastrana's remains were returned to Mexico from Norway An indigenous woman exhibited in 19th-Century Europe as the "world's ugliest woman" has been buried in her native Mexico some 150 years after her death.

Julia Pastrana, who suffered from a genetic condition that covered her face in hair, performed in circuses as a freak of nature.

After she died in 1860, her American husband toured with her embalmed body, which ended up in Norway.

Her remains were returned this week for a proper burial, after a long campaign.

People flocked to the town of Sinaloa de Leyva on Tuesday where Julia Pastrana was laid to rest in a white coffin adorned with white roses.

"Imagine the aggression and cruelty of humankind she had to face, and how she overcame it. It's a very dignified story," said Sinaloa Governor Mario Lopez.

"A human being should not be the object of anyone," Father Jaime Reyes Retana told mourners.

'Place in history'

Julia Pastrana, who was born in 1834, suffered from hypertrichosis which covered her face in hair and had a jutting jaw.

Campaigners wanted Pastrana to have the dignity denied her in life

Because of her appearance she was called a "bear woman" or "ape woman".

In the 1850s, she met and married US impresario Theodore Lent who took her round freak shows, where she would sing and dance.

She died in 1860 in Moscow after giving birth to a son who had the same condition and lived for only a few days.

But Julia Pastrana's story did not end there as Lent continued to tour with their embalmed bodies.

The corpses finally ended up in Norway, where, in a further twist in 1976, they were stolen, dumped and recovered by the police.

The remains ended up in storage at the University of Oslo.

Mexican artist Laura Anderson Barbata began a campaign for Julia Pastrana's body to be returned home in 2005, with Mexican officials subsequently lending their weight to her request.

"I felt she deserved the right to regain her dignity and her place in history, and in the world's memory," Ms Barbata told the New York Times.

View the original article here

Woman dies in 'abortion refusal'

14 November 2012 Last updated at 11:39 GMT Savita Halappanavar's family said she asked several times for an abortion before she died. Photograph courtesy of the Irish Times The death of a woman who was 17 weeks pregnant is the subject of two investigations at University Hospital Galway in the Republic of Ireland.

Savita Halappanavar's family said she asked several times for her pregnancy to be terminated because she had severe back pain and was miscarrying.

Her family claimed it was refused because there was a foetal heartbeat. She died on 28 October.

An autopsy carried out two days later found she had died from septicaemia.

Ms Halappanavar, who was 31, was a dentist.

Her husband, Praveen, told the Irish Times that medical staff said his wife could not have an abortion because Ireland was a Catholic country and the foetus was still alive.

Savita Halappanavar's family said she was suffering back pain and was found to be miscarrying when she arrived at the University Hospital Galway on 21 October

Over a three-day period, they said, she asked several times that her pregnancy be terminated.

The family said she spent a further two and a half days in pain and died on 28 October.

Substantial risk

University Hospital Galway is to carry out an internal investigation. It said it could not comment on individual cases but would be cooperating fully with the coroner's inquest into Ms Halappanavar's death.

The Health Service Executive has launched a separate investigation.

Abortion is illegal in the Republic except where there is a real and substantial risk to the life, as distinct from the health, of the mother.

The Irish government in January established a 14-member expert group to make recommendations based on a 2010 European Court of Human Rights judgment that the state failed to implement existing rights to lawful abortion where a mother's life was at risk.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said that the group was due to report back to the Minister for Health James Reilly shortly.

"The minister will consider the group's report and subsequently submit it to government," the spokesperson said.

Funeral

Ms Halappanavar and her husband, an engineer at Boston Scientific in Galway, are originally from India.

Mr Halappanavar is still in India after accompanying his wife's body there for her funeral.

He told the Irish Times: "Savita was really in agony. She was very upset, but she accepted she was losing the baby.

"When the consultant came on the ward rounds on Monday morning, Savita asked if they could not save the baby could they induce to end the pregnancy.

"The consultant said, 'As long as there is a foetal heartbeat we can't do anything'."

The Galway Roscommon University Hospitals Group said it extended its sympathies to Ms Halappanavar's family.

In a statement the group said its inquiry into Ms Halappanavar's death had not started yet because the hospital was waiting to consult with the family.

"In general in relation to media enquiries about issues where there may be onward legal action, we must reserve our position on what action we may take if assertions about a patient's care are published and we cannot speak for individual doctors or other medical professionals if a report were to name or identify any," it said.

View the original article here