The legal consequences of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland for maternity care are explored by Kent Law lecturer Máiréad Enright in a post for the Human Rights in Ireland blog.
In her post Childbirth, choice and the courts: The Eighth Amendment and more, Máiréad considers the wording of Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution (the Eighth Amendment) in the light of cases, ‘ where there is disagreement between a woman and her doctors as to how her pregnancy should be managed’.
Máiréad goes on to explore what effect there might be on maternity care if the Eighth Amendment were repealed and outlines some ‘worrying structures’ she believes would remain in Irish healthcare.
In her conclusion, Máiréad writes: ‘Given Ireland’s recent history of maternal deaths, there would be something to be said for forensic judicial attention to the extent to which labouring women’s voices are heard in maternity hospitals.’
Máiréad quotes from research conducted by the Association for Improvements in Maternity Services (AIMS): ‘…recent research found that ‘while 67% of women (surveyed) agreed that basic consent had been sought during labour and birth, 52% of those surveyed did not receive information on potential implications to have or not have tests, procedures, treatments to assist with their decisions, and only 50% felt able to make an informed refusal during their labour and baby’s birth’. Consent requirements are an essential protection for women’s autonomy and must be taken seriously.
‘The demands of insurance, and a reluctance to take the requirements of consent seriously, may provide a shield for defensive (some might say aggressive) maternal medicine long after the ‘de-constitutionalisation’ of pregnancy.’
Read the post in full on the Human Rights in Ireland blog.
Máiréad Enright lectures at Kent Law School. She is also a PhD candidate in the Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, University College Cork. Her research interests are in gender and the law, law and religion, citizenship and the political dimensions of private law. Read more about her research and publications on her staff profile page.