Court rules hospital should apologise to sterilized woman

The AFP news agency has reported that a court in the region of Olomouc has confirmed that a Czech hospital in the east of the country should apologise to a 24-year-old Romany woman for having sterilized her without her consent. At the same time, the court also ruled she is not entitled to compensation. The landmark case is the first of around eighty complaints submitted by Romany women who say they were sterilized without permission. The latest ruling confirmed an earlier decision in November against which both the hospital and the Romany woman, Helena Ferencikova, appealed.

Mrs Ferencikova was sterilized in 2001 at a hospital without consent after giving birth to her second child. Hospital doctors said that it carried out in the interests of the patient's health and that she had signed a letter of agreement. But, Mrs Ferencikova has said she was only given the document to sign when she was already in the throes of birthing pains.

She had been asking for compensation of one million crowns, (the equivalent of around 45,000 US dollars). The court has sought guidance from the Supreme Court on whether or not she may entitled to financial compensation for moral damages suffered.