Normalized suffering: obstetric violence in LF v. Ireland

Máiréad Enright

Chapter 2 in Research Handbook on Gender, Violence and Law, 2026, pp 25-42 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines the European Court of Human Rights judgment in LF v. Ireland (2020). LF concerns the Irish experience of symphysiotomy; a childbirth operation performed as an alternative to C-section. LF argued that the state was obliged to establish an independent investigation into the practice, and that this obligation derived from Article 3 (freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment) and Article 8 (private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court rejected her argument. This chapter examines the Court's reasoning from an obstetric violence perspective. It shows that the Court legitimizes a patriarchal account of Irish practices of symphysiotomy. On this account, medicine is non-violent by default. The potential violence of obstetric medicine is invisible except where doctors depart radically from prevailing medical standards, or deliberately inflict suffering.

Keywords: Obstetric Violence; Religion; Medical Negligence; Inhuman and degrading treatment; Private and Family Life; Pregnancy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035319398
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