TysiÄ…c v Poland

In the case Tysiac it is a case of the European Court of Human Rights, in which the Polish citizen Alicja Tysiąc sued the Republic of Poland. In 2007, their action has been condemned and the Polish state to a compensation payment in the amount of 25,000 euros.

Case

Woman Tysiąc was nearsighted since childhood, visually impaired in the left eye with a visual acuity of 0.2. After the birth of her second child, she was warned of the risk of blindness. Six years later, in 2000, she became pregnant again. The Polish law allowed abortions for endangering the life or health of the mother. Woman Tysiąc requested three ophthalmologists to a certificate that in their case an abortion is permissible because it would suffer blindness from a new birth. Although all doctors found that pregnancy and birth a risk to Tysiacs eyesight, they refused to issue such a certificate, as could not be assumed with certainty from detachment of the retina. Then Mrs. Tysiąc asked their family doctor to the issuance of the certificate. The certificate of the family doctor was, however, wanted to carry out the demolition of the head of the hospital where the woman Tysiąc not be recognized. The abortion was omitted therefore, and Tysiąc woman brought her daughter by Caesarean section. The birth was without significant complications.

About six weeks after the birth occurred in a woman Tysiąc a significant deterioration of vision, so she has since been unable to work. Woman Tysiąc attributed this to the failure to abortion and tried the doctor, who had denied her the abortion, to account for this. A strained her lawsuit against the doctor, however, remained unsuccessful because of a court-appointed expert panel of three physicians from the Białystok Medical Academy, in view of their illness, according the risk of retinal detachment in the applicant was ever present and neither her pregnancy nor the birth of had contributed to the realization of this risk.

Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights

Finally Tysiac filed in 2003 with the support of Planned Parenthood Federation and the American NGO " Center for Reproductive Rights " action before the European Court of Human Rights against the State, in Poland. The case was accepted for review. In March 2007, Poland was sentenced to pay restitution in the amount of 25,000 euros. The court ruled that the Polish State had not complied with the obligation to ensure that the legal according to its own law for abortion Tysiąc was possible. The judgment coincided with the vote against the Spanish judge J. Borrego Borrego.

Other judgments

A court sentenced the largest circulation newspaper of the Archdiocese of Katowice Polish church because of an article which was included in the opinion a deliberate personal attack on a single person, with the aim to stir up negative emotions against them. The court recognized a compensation payment of the equivalent of 7200 euros and print an apology. In a first Opinion, the newspaper expressed disappointment at the verdict; they check if they contest the appeal.