Sexuality and

Justice

Life Story: Human rights of womenBianca Maçãs and Carolina Cordeiro

EB de Santa Catarina - Agr. Escolas Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro

Contents

• We will talk about:

• A life story of a fifty-year-old woman that we will call Mary (not her real

name).

• The consequences in her life .

• The opinion of the public company.

Introduction

Women's rights are still disregarded by the Portuguese Justice.

The delay of 19 years for justice to a woman who was sacrificed in her life.

The capacity to learn, from this case, that women should not be hurt in their

body and feelings.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all

men and women are created equal.” - Elizabeth

Cady Stanton (defender of women's rights).

Chronology of events

On 22nd May 1995, Maria who was 50, was submitted to a surgery in the

vaginal area to remove two glands that caused her serious and continuous

infections.

In this surgery there was an error because the doctors cut her a vital nerve.

Consequences on the

victim's life

This lady has suffered from urinary and fecal incontinence, therefore she had

to wear diapers and she couldn’t have sex with her husband because she

lost her sensitivity in the genital area.

Indemnity

Mary brought the criminal proceedings against the hospital and the sentence

was: the hospital should pay her an indemnity of 175 000 000 euros to

support all the damages caused by this medical error.

Hospital appeals in court

The hospital appealed against the sentence in order to decrease the amount

of the indemnity and to delay the solution of this case.

Disability

The patient stopped working because she was considered disable due to the

problems she was living. Now she is 69 years old and her husband has

already died. She survives with a 200 euros pension.

Time for Justice

The Court took 19 years to make a decision on the indemnity. Only on 9th

October 2014 the case was solved. In the meanwhile, Mary appealed to the

European Court of Human Rights due to the delay of the Court response.

Opinion of the society

A Portuguese Women Association protested against the late decision from

the Court and they claimed that the women’s fundamental sexual and

reproductive rights are protected by the Constitution and by the International

Rights.

Conclusion

We can conclude that:

• Women’s rights must be respected.

•The Portuguese justice is very slow.

•There is discrimination towards women.

•Sensitivity is needed to talk about women’s sexuality and rights .