Congolese Woman Forcibly Transfused

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Friday September 22, 2006 13:17 by Miriam

This information was sent privately this morning. The story is being reported elsewhere but it is worth drawing to the attention of RAR and other users of Indymedia.

A single Jehova's Witness woman from Congo has been forcibly transfused with
blood at the Coombe Women's Hospital in order that her (healthy) newborn son
will have a relative and carer within the state. I have never, ever heard of
religious objections being overturned like this - "Mr Justice Henry Abbott
directed the hospital to restrain her if she physically attempted to stop
doctors administering to her a life-saving transfusion." The compulsion to
treat pregnant women and to apply psychiatric detention orders is a huge
problem in Ireland, but this treatment of a single, black woman is an
outrage too far.

A young mother, whom the High Court ordered should be given a blood
transfusion against her will in a bid to save her life, was recovering at a
Dublin maternity hospital last night.
The Humanist Association of Ireland described the court decision as
"absolutely outrageous". Its vice-chairman Dick Spicer said the decision set
a dreadful precedent. "It overrides individual religious rights. It
overrides the right to refuse treatment and the ramifications of this could
be enormous in the future", he said.

The Ms K case is understood to be one of the first of a compos mentis adult
refusing a transfusion to come before the Irish courts.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2006/0922/115859....html

Hospital ordered to give Jehovah's Witness transfusion

The High Court tonight intervened to save the life of a seriously ill
African woman by ordering a Dublin hospital to give her a life-saving blood
transfusion.

The 23-year-old Congolese woman, who suffered a major haemorrhage today
after giving birth to a healthy baby boy, had refused the treatment on
religious grounds because she is a Jehovah's Witness.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/story.asp?j=41667...37&x=