CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

CYIL 11 (2020) BALANCING THE INTERESTS OF PREGNANT WOMAN AND CHILD… BALANCING THE INTERESTS OF PREGNANT WOMAN AND CHILD DURING THE CHILDBIRTH Petr Šustek  1 Abstract: In clinical practice, there sometimes arises a conflict of interests between the woman in labour who refuses a medical intervention (such as a caesarean section) and the child that is in immediate danger of death or severe harm. The paper strives to answer the question of whether the interests of the child can possibly override the mother’s right to autonomy and self-determination. We acknowledge that under Czech law, the right to life does not emerge before the moment of birth. However, we argue that Czech law, as well as the Council of Europe system of human rights protection, implicitly bases its approach to unborn human life on gradualist notion that the embryo and foetus acquire ever stronger legal protection in the course of their development. The interests of the child during labour can, under certain conditions, be stronger than the interests of the mother and justify necessary medical interventions. Resumé: V klinické praxi nezřídka nastává situace konfliktu mezi zájmy rodící ženy, která odmítá lékařské zásahy do probíhajícího porodu (např. císařský řez), a dítěte, jemuž hrozí úmrtí nebo vážné poškození. Tento článek si klade za cíl nalézt odpověď na otázku, zda zájmy dítěte mohou být způsobilé převážit právo ženy na autonomii a sebeurčení. Právo na život podle českého práva vzniká až okamžikem narození. České právo i systém ochrany lidských práv Rady Evropy však svůj přístup k nenarozenému lidskému životu implicitně zakládají na gradualistickém pojetí, podle něhož embryo a plod během svého vývoje po- stupně nabývají stále silnější právní ochrany. Zájmy dítěte v průběhu porodu tak za splnění určitých podmínek mohou být silnější než zájmy rodičky a ospravedlnit provedení nezbyt- ných zdravotních výkonů. Key words: maternal-foetal conflict, the status of the foetus, right to life, rights of woman in labour, medical law, health law, medical ethics, European Convention on Human Rights About the Author: doc. JUDr. Petr Šustek, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Law and the Centre for Medical Law at the Faculty of Law, Charles University (Prague). His main area of interest lies in civil law (especially tort law) and medical law. Introduction In the course of a childbirth, there might arise a situation when an acute procedure, often surgical, is needed to save the child’s life. 2 It is usually indicated when the CTG (cardiotocography) 3 monitoring shows abnormal foetal heartbeat. If the child were extracted with a delay, she or he could suffer from acute cerebral hypoxia resulting in irreversible damage 1 This paper was written with the support of the Charles University UNCE/HUM/011 “Human Rights Research Centre”. 2 Throughout this paper, the word “child” is used in a broad sense, encompassing both children who have been actually born and not-yet-born foetuses. 3 Cardiotocography (CTG) is “the electronic monitoring of the fetal heart rate and the frequency of uterine contractions” . MARTIN, Elizabeth A. (ed.). Concise Medical Dictionary. 9 th ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, p. 120.

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