Pemberton v. Tallahassee Memorial Regional Center

Pemberton v. Tallhassee Memorial Regional Center (U.S. District Court, N.D. Florida, Tallahassee Division., October 13, 1999) is a case in the United States regarding reproductive rights. In particular, the case explored the limits of a woman's right to choose her medical treatment in light of fetal rights at the end of pregnancy.

Pemberton had a previous c-section (vertical incision), and with her second child attempted to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section). However, since she could not find any doctor to assist her in this endeavor, she labored at home, with a midwife.

When a doctor she had approached about a related issue at the Tallahassee Memorial Regional Center found out, he and the hospital sued to force her to get a c-section.

The court held that the rights of the fetus at or near birth outweighed the rights of Pemberton to determine her own medical care. She was physically forced to stop laboring, and taken to the hospital, where a c-section was performed.

Her suit against the hospital was dismissed. The court held that a cesarean section at the end of a full-term pregnancy was here deemed to be medically necessary by doctors to avoid a substantial risk that the fetus would die during delivery due to uterine rupture, a risk of 4-6% according to the hospital's doctors and 2% according to Pemberton's doctors. Furthermore, the court held that a state's interest in preserving the life of an unborn child outweighed the mother's constitutional interest of bodily integrity. The court held that Roe v. Wade was not applicable, because bearing an unwanted child is a greater intrusion on the mother’s constitutional interests than undergoing a cesarean section to deliver a child that the mother affirmatively desires to deliver. The court further distinguished In re A.C. by stating that it left open the possibility that a non-consenting patient's interest would yield to a more compelling countervailing interest in an "extremely rare and truly exceptional case." The court then held this case to be such.

References

[http://faculty.smu.edu/tmayo/pemberton.pdf Court Decision (pdf)]
[http://books.google.com/books?id=9fKIuN7EGQ4C&pg=PA187&lpg=PA187&dq=pemberton+v.+tallahassee+memorial&source=web&ots=5e6lKKOqQr&sig=6TNsBQmEC8FfUSn_plYPjgyC758&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result Rights Duties, and the Body, by Rosamund Scott]
[http://feminocracy.wordpress.com/2008/09/05/and-now-you-know-the-rest-of-the-story/ The Rest of the Story]