The case concerns the applicant’s sterilization in a public hospital without her informed consent.
The applicant was born in 1980 and lives in Krasnoyarsk. She was represented by Mr. P. Tomarovskiy, a lawyer practicing in Krasnoyarsk.
The Government was initially represented by Mr. M. Galperin, Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Court of Human Rights, and later by his successor in that office, Mr. M. Vinogradov.
The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
On 18 September 2007, the applicant had an urgent operation in municipal hospital no. 4 in connection with an ectopic pregnancy. Her right fallopian tube was removed.
On 24 September 2007 the applicant was discharged from the hospital with a recommendation that for the next six months, she avoid getting pregnant. It appears that she became pregnant three months after the surgery.
On 1 August 2008 the applicant, who was then in the thirtieth or thirty-first week of pregnancy, was admitted to municipal maternity hospital no. 2 showing symptoms of rhesus incompatibility and excess amniotic fluid.
8. On 10 August 2008, after examining the applicant, doctors at the hospital decided to perform an emergency Caesarean section as the fetus’s condition had deteriorated and there were signs of hypoxia.
