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The European Court of Human Rights has declared inadmissible the applications of three Irish women who underwent symphysiotomies in Irish maternity hospitals in the 1960s.
Each of the three requests, identified as LF, KO’S, and WM, underwent the procedures during or before delivery at three different maternity hospitals.
A symphysiotomy is a surgical procedure in the pelvis to facilitate delivery.
The three women had alleged that they had not been informed about the procedure and had not given their full and informed consent.
They also alleged that they suffered physical and psychological trauma as a result of the procedure.
In their application to the European Court of Human Rights, the women complained that the use of the procedure in Ireland had not been the subject of a national investigation under the Convention.
They also complained that they had not been able to fully litigate their claims at the national level.
One applicant also complained that by allowing symphysiotomies to be performed, the State had failed to fulfill its obligation to protect women from inhuman and degrading treatment.
The ECtHR has found that in one case the complaint was inadmissible because the plaintiff had not exhausted domestic remedies in the Irish courts.
In the other two cases, it found that the applicants’ claims were manifestly unfounded, indicating that a question was also raised about the exhaustion of domestic remedies.
The court has said the decisions are final.
While symphysiotomies fell out of favor in Western Europe because caesarean sections were safer, around 1,500 women underwent the procedure in Ireland between the 1940s and 1980s.
In 2014, the Government agreed to a reparation plan for women who underwent the procedure. The compensation ranges between 50,000 and 150,000 euros.
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