With the capacity of doctors to intervene in pregnancy increasing, the likelihood for conflicts between doctors and hospitals and pregnant women is also increasing. Yet our jurisprudence has failed to clarify the bounds of pregnant women’s autonomy. Indeed, this jurisprudence is marked by confusion, leaving courts in the dark as to how to resolve these conflicts. Therefore, it is useful to carefully enunciate the rights and interests at issue in forced medical care of pregnant women. This includes 1) the distinction between the right to refuse medical care of oneself and the lack of a right to refuse consent to necessary medical care of others, 2) the right not to be forced to rescue others, and 3) the nature of the exceptions to these rights. Careful delineation of these concepts reveals that forced medical care of pregnant women lacks justification when these principles are consistently applied.
A pregnant woman with significant mental health impairments will not have to undergo an abortion after a senior judge ruled that she had enough capacity to decide whether she wanted to become a mother.
Two weeks ago, The New York Times ran a story about a pregnant 33-year-old woman in Texas, Marlise Munoz, whose family has been unable to have her removed from life support, notwithstanding her wishes and those of her family. The hospital has refused to remove Munoz’s life support because of a Texas law that prohibits the withdrawal or withholding of life-sustaining treatment from a pregnant patient. Political groups have weighed in on the controversy in predictable ways, corresponding to their views regarding abortion. This column will analyze the dilemma as one that is, in some respects, legally and morally distinct from the situation that confronts us in the abortion context. - See more at: http://verdict.justia.com/2014/01/22/excluding-pregnant-women-right-terminate-life-support#sthash.JBLvcBMZ.dpuf
Judge approves forced Caesarean for mentally-ill woman Doctors have been granted permission to perform an urgent Caesarean section on a mentally-ill woman with diabetes. High Court judge Mr Justice Hayden gave specialists at the Royal Free London NHS Trust approval after a five-hour hearing at the Court of Protection. He said the decision was "draconian" but necessary because the mother's life may be in danger. The woman, 32, who is 32 weeks pregnant, was deemed unable to make the decision over how to give birth. The ruling, late on Friday, came after doctors applied for permission to carry out the delivery in order that the patient's "unstable mental state" could be treated. A specialist from the trust told the Court of Protection in London, which specialises in issues relating to the sick and vulnerable, that their priority was "keeping this woman alive".