Women who underwent "barbaric" surgery as an alternative to Caesarian sections have reacted with anger to the revelation that the man the Department of Health had planned to conduct a review into the practice has written in medical journals supporting the procedure.
It has just been learned that Prof Kenneth Bjorklund, of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, will not now take up the role.
A Department of Health spokesman said Prof Bjorklund was no longer able to conduct the review because of "work commitments". A replacement expert is now being sought.
Hundreds of symphysiotomies - an operation which permanently widens the pelvis - were carried out between the 1950s and 1980s.
However, many women say their consent was never sought for the operations, and are now suffering from conditions including incontinence, acute back pain and mobility problems.
Survivors of Symphysiotomy (SOS), a group representing women who underwent the procedure, reacted furiously after learning that Prof Bjorklund had advocated the reintroduction of symphysiotomy into obstetrics.
In a study of 5,000 cases of symphysiotomy over the last 100 years, he concluded that the operation was safe for the mother and complications were rare.
In the conclusions of a 2002 study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, he stated: "If valid conclusions can be drawn from 100 years of retrospective studies, there is considerable evidence to support a reinstatement of symphysiotomy in the obstetric arsenal for the benefit of women in obstructed labour and their offspring."
He said it was of particular assistance in third-world countries where an estimated 50,000 women die each year because of obstructed labour.
The spokesman for the Department of Health defended the decision to appoint Prof Bjorklund, and said he was an internationally-recognised expert.
The SOS group, which has described the operations as "brutal and barbaric", said it was shocked to learn of the Department's plans, and would have withdrawn its support for the review if the appointment had went ahead.
Louth-based GP Dr Mary Grehan, who is providing support to the SOS group, also said the plans to appoint a proponent of symphysiotomy to lead the review were a "total and absolute disgrace".
"I don't see how anyone could say that complications from the operation were rare. There are hundreds of women who were butchered by this operation.
"A lot of these women still won't go near a doctor because of what happened to them."
Irish surgeons continued to carry out the operation on a large scale during the 1950s despite condemnation from visiting doctors, one of whom described it as "midwifery of the dark ages".
