Normalized suffering: obstetric violence in LF v. Ireland

This chapter examines the European Court of Human Rights judgment in LF v. Ireland [2020] ECHR 364. 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 legitimates 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.