PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Kluge, E H
TI  - When caesarean section operations imposed by a court are justified.
AID  - 10.1136/jme.14.4.206
DP  - 1988 Dec 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 206--211
VI  - 14
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/14/4/206.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/14/4/206.full
SO  - J Med Ethics1988 Dec 01; 14
AB  - Court-ordered caesarean sections against the explicit wishes of the pregnant woman have been criticised as violations of the woman's fundamental right to autonomy and to the inviolability of the person--particularly, so it is argued, because the fetus in utero is not yet a person. This paper examines the logic of this position and argues that once the fetus has passed a certain stage of neurological development it is a person, and that then the whole issue becomes one of balancing of rights: the right-to-life of the fetal person against the right to autonomy and inviolability of the woman; and that the fetal right usually wins.