Report from Ireland, by Gerry Whyte

MOJ-friend and Trinity College Dublin Law Prof Gerry Whyte writes:

The Irish High Court has handed down an interesting freedom of religion decision this afternoon. This morning, a Congolese woman gave birth to a healthy child in a Dublin maternity hospital but then suffered a massive haemorrhage, losing up to 80% of her blood. When the hospital went to give her a blood transfusion, she objected on the ground that she is a Jehovah's Witness. The hospital went to court and got an order authorising the transfusion. In what must have been an ex tempore judgment, the High Court judge accepted that the woman was compos mentis but pointed out that she was the sole relative of her son living in Ireland, whose interests were paramount, and that in the circumstances, he, the judge, had to act in favour of life, leaving it to the lawyers to argue about it afterwards.

{To read about the case, click here.]