The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) in Britain is to be asked this month to approve a paper by its ethics committee strongly opposing the use of the courts to sanction obstetric intervention against a patient's will. The committee takes the same line as the American Medical Association (AMA), which spoke out against the practice after a string of caesarean sections were ordered by courts in the US.

American courts have become more reluctant to make such orders since the District of Columbia Court of Appeals held in 1990 that women have a virtually absolute right to make choices about their health care, even when these endanger the life of …