| From: |
joya banerjee [ profile ] |
| Subject: |
Forcibly sterilised if HIV-positive in Africa
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| Sent: |
Apr 18th, 2011 - 04:40:55 |
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Forcibly sterilised if HIV-positive in Africa
By Tosin Sulaiman
Excerpt:
LONDON (TrustLaw) - When Promise Mthembu went to a public hospital to
have an abortion 14 years ago, the doctor told her he would terminate
the pregnancy on one condition she had to agree to be sterilised.
Mthembu, who is from Durban, South Africa, had been diagnosed with HIV
two years earlier and she believes that was the reason behind the
doctors ultimatum. Although she did not want to be sterilised, she
felt she had no time to explore other choices and reluctantly agreed.
.... Mthembu has since discovered that her experience is not unique.
Since January, the NGO she heads, Her Rights Initiative (HRI), has
been collaborating with other partners to document cases of coerced
sterilisation of HIV-positive women in South Africa. So far, Mthembu
has interviewed 30 women from the province of KwaZulu-Natal who say
they were forcibly sterilised, the majority at public hospitals. She
said HRI is waiting for data from other provinces and that its legal
partners are exploring the possibility of litigation.
The cases are not confined to South Africa. In nearby Namibia,
eighteen HIV-positive women who allege they were sterilised at public
hospitals without their informed consent have sued the government. The
High Court of Namibia began hearing three of the cases in October
2009. The trial concluded in January and a judgment is expected later
this year.
The International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDs (ICW) began
documenting the practice of forced and coerced sterilisation in 2008
after holding a series of workshops with HIV-positive women in
Namibia. Of the 230 women ICW researchers interviewed at the
workshops, 40 said they had been sterilised against their will, the
organisation said in a report published in March 2009.
CASES OF CONSENT UNDER DURESS OR LACK OF INFORMED CONSENT
In some of the cases, medical staff had failed to obtain consent from
the women, who only found out they had been sterilised after the
procedure had been carried out. Some women were asked to sign consent
forms authorising sterilisation in order to access services, such as
abortions, caesarean sections or assistance with the delivery of their
babies, while others were presented with consent forms while they were
in labour.
Full Story:
http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/news/forcibly-sterilised-if-hiv-positive-in-africa
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