Journal of the Charles University Law Faculty
Lukáš Lev Červinka
Author’s affiliation:
Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague
Human Rights and Child Birth: A Case Study of Providing a Maternity Care in Czechia during the Covid-19 Crisis
Jurisprudence 6/2021 Section: Articles Page: 23-33
Keywords: Covid-19, human rights, health care, right to protection of family
Abstract: The case study analyses covid-19 restrictions regulating providing maternity care in Czechia in 2020 and 2021. It takes into account not only the measures adopted by Ministry of Health and the Government, but also their implementation by healthcare providers. The study analyses: 1) the third person’s presence at the child birth, 2) father’s visit to his new-born child, 3) visit to hospitalised mother for the purpose of breastfeeding of her other child, 4) presence of the parent during the new-born baby medical examination. The case study found not only that the adopted measures lack any explanation but also that they infringe the core of the human rights in hand. Moreover, the healthcare providers often restricted the human rights beyond, or in conflict with, the measures adopted by the Ministry of Health or the Government, ignoring both any effect it had on the patients and other thirds persons and the very essential values of the democratic state respecting the rule of law.
