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Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context

On care, coercion and childbirth in the Court of Protection

New blog from Dr Ruth Fletcher analyses Court of Protection decision involving a pregnant woman living with agoraphobia.

Published:
A pregnant woman looking at her bump

Dr Ruth Fletcher, Senior Lecturer in Medical Law at Queen Mary University of London, has published a blog responding to a recent Court of Protection decision finding incapacity and authorising forcible restraint in a case concerning an agoraphobic woman who wanted a home birth. In the piece she states: "A woman’s wish for a healthy baby was extracted from the collection of wishes, feelings, and knowledge that she has about her pregnant life, and joined with medical evidence (of a 10% risk of a need for urgent transfer from home to hospital and a 1% risk of a stillbirth) to justify orders permitting forcible removal, a planned delivery, and physical and chemical restraint."

Read the full blog on Open Justice: Court of Protection Project.

 

 

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