Laura Agustín is renowned for her ground-breaking research, writing and advocacy on migration, sex work and trafficking. Her writing is available on her blog The Naked Anthropologist and in her highly acclaimed book Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry. Writing frequently about the sex workers she has worked with, she has attracted controversy from those who would rather see sex work and prostitution completely abolished.

Savita Halappanavar was a 31-year-old Indian dentist based in Galway, Ireland. She was married to Praveen Halappanavar who is a 34-year-old engineer. Savita was pregnant. On Sunday 21 October 2012, she presented to University Hospital Galway with back pains while in her 17th week of pregnancy.

Sadly, hospital staff told her she was miscarrying her pregnancy but there was still a foetal heartbeat present.