ABSTRACT
As noted previously, incentives to pressurise pregnant women to comply with medical advice may be substantial. Since in law a competent woman, pregnant or not, has been repeatedly stated to have an unqualified right to refuse treatment in the UK, questioning the capacity to give valid refusal has become a major feature of obstetric conflict in this jurisdiction. The way in which this issue has been handled in past court cases has been less than exemplary, and legal loopholes retain the potential for this to be used as an alternative route to achieving compliance.
