ABSTRACT
Pregnant Women and the Law Court cases in which medical staff seek to impose treatment on unwilling pregnant women represent a unique legal situation. Even in those instances where the hospital or physician is apparently acting in the pregnant woman’s best interests, as well as those of the foetus, the very possibility of a health care provider instituting legal action aimed at overriding a patient’s wishes is in many ways an extraordinary development, especially since such cases have proceeded even when it is perfectly clear that the woman concerned is legally competent to take her own decisions. A prime purpose of seeking the court’s approval to proceed with the unwanted treatment, either by an injunction forbidding the woman to refuse intervention or by declaratory relief stating that intervention without consent is not unlawful, is in order for medical staff to avoid later sanctions that might otherwise ensue.
