[Pregnant, addicted prostitutes: compulsory admission is sometimes necessary in the interests of the child]. / Zwangere, verslaafde prostituees: soms gedwongen opname in het belang van het kind.

Three drug-addicted prostitutes, who were 37, 27 and 25 weeks pregnant respectively, were admitted to a psychiatric department under court order. After the birth, the children were placed in foster families. The mothers withdrew from further treatment. In Rotterdam, The Netherlands, there is a city network made up of doctors and social workers; in the case of addicted pregnant prostitutes they advise the Child Protection Agency of the Ministry of Justice about the care of the child after its birth. The combination of heavy addiction and prostitution in a pregnancy without any prenatal care can be considered a psychiatric disorder. Consequently, an addicted woman can be compulsorily admitted because of the threat she forms to her unborn child. In these cases the mother's right to self-determination must be limited in the interest of the child.

[Post mortem semen acquisition: not without 'informed consent']. / Semenafname post mortem: niet zonder 'informed consent'.

Recently, two requests for post-mortem semen acquisition were evaluated and rejected. The first request was from the wife of a man who died after the wedding night. In the second case, the wife requested that electroejaculation be done on a man who was brain dead because of a gunshot wound in the head. In both cases, the fact that there was no written consent from the men involved before they died was the deciding reason not to grant the requests. Written consent is legally and ethically seen as the final episode of a period in which persons have considered the consequences of the acquisition, storage and use of semen after the death of the husband.

Legal protection or legal threat? Ethical conflicts in the process of medical decision making.

Children have a fundamental right to good health care. It seems natural that they should be treated according to their age and intellectual capacity. However, this is more complicated than it seems at first and causes ethical conflicts. This article discusses whether Dutch and European law can solve these ethical conflicts and points out that solutions are not always to be found through legal interference, which may lead to judicial paternalism.