[lettie]

Tinks, another example of the Human Rights Act gone awry are the cases of court ordered Caesarian Sections. There have been a few in the last 5 years and all have been reported in newspapers, so you should be able to google them. Basically women have been forced to have sections due to problems in labour/pregnancy where fears for the life of the unborn child have prevailed over the woman's right to refuse the op. The fetus has no rights in British law until it is born, but somehow the courts and doctors have managed to override the woman's wishes and enforce an operation. These are very interesting cases, as they show how the law can be bent to suit. Many of these women have been deemed to have phobias of needles etc therefore classed as psychiatric disorders and deemed incompetent to make a rational decision, even though the women knew that their babies would in all likelyhood die, or they would die themselves without the op. These women had all the information and knew what the outcome of their refusal would be but still chose to refuse treatment. The law treat them as incompetent even though they were intelligent women.

Also look into cases of enforced blood transfusion for Jehova's witnesses or children of Jehova's witnesses. You should find something interesting there too.