In today’s
(10-1-2017) Chamber judgment in the case of Ioniță v. Romania (application no.
81270/12) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had
been a violation of Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on
Human Rights.
The case
concerned the death of the applicants’ four-year-old son following an
operation. The applicants complained that the authorities had failed to
effectively investigate the incident, despite their repeated claims that
it had
been caused by the negligence of medical staff.
The Court
found that there had not been a proper investigation into the death, for the
following reasons in particular. First, the medical authorities had failed to
provide an additional forensic report about the incident, even though one was
necessary.
Furthermore,
the authorities had never established whether the supervising nurse had
properly carried out her duties, even though these were highly relevant to the
alleged cause of death.
Moreover,
the domestic courts had also found no medical negligence on behalf of the
doctors – even though disciplinary tribunals had found that they had failed to
obtain the applicants’ informed consent for the procedure, and this consent had
been required under Romanian law.
Finally,
the proceedings had taken an unjustifiably long amount of time, given that six
and a half years had elapsed between the death of the applicants’ son and the
final decision in the case.(hudoc.echr.coe.int) Read
the Decision here
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