Court-Ordered Cesarean Sections Receive Judicial Defeat

In a quiet, often unnoticed, but consistent manner, a number of trial-court judges in at least 11 states across the country have ordered that a pregnant woman must submit to a cesarean section to deliver a viable fetus against the known and clearly expressed will of the woman. This legal intervention has virtually always been brought about by the same physicians who were caring for the woman during her pregnancy. As one legal commentator has observed, "In most cases that have been brought, doctors have prevailed easily." 1 In what is still the only nationwide survey of court orders sought by . . .