Case – female prisoner
In the beginning of 1990s in Norway a pregnant woman convicted for smuggling narcotics was taken to maternity control with handcuffs. She was accompanied by two male police officers. The handcuffs were taken off during the medical examination, but the officers insisted they be present in the surgery because of the risk of escaping. The prisoner was pregnant in her 8th month and the risk of escaping was minimal.
Later, after her son was born, he became ill and was hospitalised. She was allowed to visit him once and during the visit she wore handcuffs and foot shackles. She had problems holding her son in her arms because of the handcuffs.
Later she herself was sent to hospital for x-ray. During the examination she was shackled to a policeman.
This case was brought before to the Norwegian Medical Association's Committee for Human Rights. The Committee wrote to the actual hospitals to find out what had happened. The hospitals found no documentation in the medical records or in the nurses' reports on any of these restraints being used on the patient. Some nurses could however report that they had observed that the prisoner had been handcuffed when she visited her son during his hospitalisation. None of the other situations were registered and neither doctors nor nurses protested against the alleged degrading treatment.
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