“Marion” was a fourteen year old girl with an “intellectual disability”, severe deafness, epilepsy, an ataxic gait and “behavioural problems”. She could not care for herself. Her parents proposed that Marion undertake a hysterectomy and an ovarienectomy (the Procedures). The hysterectomy was proposed to prevent natural pregnancy and menstruation and the psychological and behavioural consequences …Read more

This case dealt with the right to choose how to live, specifically regarding the right to refuse a blood transfusion. Miss T had been raised by her mother, a Jehovah’s witness, but was never baptized into the faith and had told her boyfriend and father that she was not a Jehovah’s Witness. She was 34 …Read more

Planned Parenthood brought suit challenging the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act of 1982 (the Act) in federal court on constitutional grounds. The Act included the following requirements for women seeking an abortion in Pennsylvania: A woman seeking an abortion must give her informed consent prior to the abortion procedure, and she must provide certain information at …Read more

Appellant doctor appealed an award of $808,564.38 to respondent patient. Appellant doctor had operated on the right eye of respondent patient in an attempt to improve its appearance and restore some sight as respondent patient’s right eye had been sightless from a previous injury. The lower court had found that appellant doctor had operated with …Read more

The Appellants brought this case challenging an amendment to the Minors’ Consent to Health Services Act (the Act) on the basis that it violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Subdivision 2 of the Act provided, with certain exceptions, that no abortion shall be performed on a …Read more

Kerstin H. had an operation intended to lessen pain in her hip, however after the operation she still suffered from the original ailment as well as new pain. Prior to the operation, Kerstin H. had been informed that the doctors aimed “to clean up the area around the nerve” (the doctors had also used such …Read more

John Moore underwent treatment for hairy-cell leukemia at UCLA Medical Center, owned and operated by the regents of the university. During the course of his treatment, Moore’s spleen was removed and various tissue samples were taken by his doctor. Moore’s doctor engaged with a researcher at the medical center to study these samples (which were …Read more

The Respondents, including a facility that provides abortions, a physician who performs abortions, and a minor woman who sought an abortion, brought suit challenging the constitutional validity of Ohio’s Amended Substitute House Bill 319, which made it a criminal offence, except in four specified circumstances, for a physician or other person to perform an abortion …Read more

F was a 36 year old adult woman who suffered from a disability that left her with the mental capacity of a young child.  She had been a voluntary in-patient at a mental hospital since the age of 14, where she received treatment and enjoyed a great degree of freedom of movement. Although the facility …Read more

  The applicant, a French citizen, struggled with depression, schizophrenia and, at some points, symptoms of catatonia.  In May of 1961, the applicant, who was a primary school supply teacher, voluntarily reported to the neurological clinic at Strasbourg Hospital for observation. He expected to be in the hospital for two weeks. In June of 1961, …Read more