TY - JOUR T1 - When caesarean section operations imposed by a court are justified. JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 206 LP - 211 DO - 10.1136/jme.14.4.206 VL - 14 IS - 4 AU - E H Kluge Y1 - 1988/12/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/14/4/206.abstract N2 - 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. ER -