The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that the Republic of Austria violated the religious rights of a Muslim mother from Bregenz by conducting an autopsy on her baby, who died shortly after birth, without her consent.
The woman had been prevented by the autopsy from burying the child according to religious rites, the judges justified the decision. According to the ECHR, the Republic violated the right to private and family life (Article 8) and freedom of religion (Article 9). The woman from Bregenz is now entitled to 10,000 euros for the non-material damage she suffered, as well as 37,800 euros for costs incurred.
The baby had been born seriously ill on April 3, 2007, and died two days later from a brain haemorrhage. According to the plaintiff, the autopsy destroyed the child’s body, which prevented the ritual washing and thus religious burial prescribed in Islam.
According to the judges, the authorities should have taken the mother’s will into account, as the state has plenty of room to manoeuvre in autopsies. In this case, the balance between scientific interests and those of the mother had not been achieved, the judgement states. Moreover, the authorities should have informed the woman about the nature of the autopsy.
The child’s body had been returned to his parents after the autopsy, who had not realised the extent of the damage at first because the child was dressed. Therefore, they took the body to Turkey for religious burial. Only there were they made aware of the condition of the body during the funeral rites, and the burial was interrupted. The child was finally buried in another village without the Islamic ceremony at extra cost.