A Chicago woman filed a complaint on August 7, 2009 alleging battery and negligence after a bitubal ligation was performed on her against her will and without her consent. The alleged unauthorized sterilization was performed on Nada Dollah at Rush-Copley Medical Center by her doctor, Nizar Olabi, whom Dollah claims had only obtained informed consent to perform a cesarean section.
Dollah is seeking compensatory damages from Olabi as an individual as well as from Olabi’s company, Women’s Health Physicians and Rush-Copley Medical Center, which the plaintiff claims negligently failed to ensure that Olabi understood his role and did not obtain informed consent prior to sterilizing her, thereby failing to protect her from unauthorized intrusion.
happened to my mother 29 yrs ago. She had a stillbirth due to RH incompatibility and nearly died herself. While she was drugged in the hospital, also without her consent, she was tubally ligated. She was kept drugged for the next six months (and not even informed fully of what had happened and where her baby had gone or what was done to her) and my parent's marriage and my family was destroyed. My parents divorced not long after this. This kind of lack of respect for women as full thinking persons capable of making decisions about their own bodies still abounds. It is the same attitude that facilitates Hospitals giving formula to infants directly against their Mother's wishes and so many other unfair and unsafe practices that truly destroy Women and families. It needs to change. It makes me angry that this STILL occurs, a full generation later!
ReplyDeleteMy sister, who is mildly learning disabled, was sterilized without her knowledge 15 years ago when she was 19. She was getting radiation for Hodgkin's disease, and the Dr. asked her "guardian" (one of my relatives, who later confided this to me--and this was not a "legal" guardianship, in the sense that since my sister was over the age of 18 and had not been declared mentally incompentent, she should have been the one who had to consent) for consent to "do a bit of extra radiation to make her sterile."
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, since I am the person who is pretty much responsible for my sister at this point in time, and I know her capabilities, I do NOT want her having children. But on the other hand...I do not think this is right.
I've never told her. At the time I learned of this she did have a boyfriend, but she hasn't had one in a few years. I don't know what I will ever do if she ends up having a serious relationship, and wants to have children.
In the 21st century, women, even in this country, still are not always treated respectfully. We are in charge of our own bodies and decisions. Routinely, women are not given all the facts before procedures. Even with abortions, women are not told the truth about the developmental stages of the fetus and the potential long term psychological and medical effects to the mother. When will we treat women with the respect they deserve?!
ReplyDeleteMy tubes were tied w/o my consent. The doctor asked my husband for consent whilst I was under anesthesia
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