On Thursday 26^th April the Chair of the Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services, the leading childbirth campaigning organisation in the United Kingdom, visited Budapest and expressed the wish to meet with Dr Agnes Geréb.

The meeting took place in Dr Geréb’s flat as she is still under house arrest for an indeterminate period of time.

Following the meeting with Dr Geréb   Beverley Lawrence Beech (the Chair of AIMS) commented:

I have followed Dr Geréb’s case with considerable interest and was horrified, as were so many other international experts, that these cases have been brought in the first place.  In discussions with midwifery experts in the UK and internationally, it is clear that there is an international agreement that there was no justification for prosecuting Dr Geréb, and even less for treating her in the inhumane and punitive way that she has been treated.

I was informed during my meeting that the Government of Hungary has agreed to extend Dr Geréb’s house arrest and while I applaud this action, it does not go far enough.  I trust that the President  will take heed of the international expert condemnation of the legal actions against Dr Geréb and grant her request for the cancellation of the current verdicts.  In the matter of other cases that we understand are pending  I also expect that the President will cancel these, as they can have no foundation in fact  for Agnes’s  work and professional ouput is, in world terms, of the highest possible standards.

 

Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services

www.aims.org.uk

Beverley.beech@aims.org.uk

In a letter sent Friday (April 20^th) to the incoming President of Hungary Dr. Janos Ader, the Royal College of Midwives’ President Lesley Page expressed the “full support of the RCM” for Hungarian midwives Ágnes Geréb and  Ágnes Kiraly and requested a full pardon and cancellation of all criminal charges. In the two-page letter, she said: “It is our hope that the granting of clemency will help create the conditions for further reforms of maternity care in Hungary. This would add to the momentum created by the Homebirth regulations introduced by the Fidesz government and Dr Miklos Szocska personally in April 2011.

 “It is also our hope that Hungary might become an example to other countries in the region, still burdened with the legacy of authoritarian systems of medical care, left over from the Communist period.

 “We are aware that on February 10th, 2012, the Budapest Appeal Court announced the verdict in the case of Dr. Ágnes Geréb and four other Hungarian midwives. The terms of Ágnes Geréb’s sentence of two year imprisonment were tightened, and a ban on practising doubled to ten years. The Royal College of Midwives was deeply concerned to hear of this harsh verdict. We believe that allegations of negligence should not be judged by a criminal court, but by a professional regulatory body.”

“We would be glad to place at the disposal of you and the Government of Hungary, information about British and other international experience of maternity care reform, and in particular the part that professional regulatory organisations – in this case, a Board of Midwives – may play in dealing with allegations of negligence against their members.”

“We appreciate the efforts of the present Hungarian government which brought about the introduction of first-time homebirth legislation in 2011. However, the criminal proceedings against Dr. Geréb and the other midwives started before the implementation of the new regulations, and we believe that fairness and equity would demand that account now be taken of this.”

 Gereb, founder of the Napvilág birthing centre, is a highly experienced gynaecologist, midwife and internationally recognised home birth expert. She has successfully helped deliver 3,500 babies at home. Hungarian law prevents midwives from attending births outside hospitals and Agnes was charged with “reckless endangerment of life committed in the line of duty”. On 5 October, 2010, Gereb was subjected to intense interrogation before being called to a closed court at 10pm. She appeared in an open court on 12 October, shackled in leg chains and handcuffs, accused of negligent malpractice.

For more information contact the RCM Press Office

on 020 7312 3456 or email pressofficer@rcm.org.uk

RCM LETTER FROM PROF. LELSLEY PAGE LETTER TO INCOMING HUNGARIAN PRESIDENT JANOS ADER

BY EMAIL - Pres/LP/AKH

20 April 2012

Dr Janos Ader
Incoming President of Hungary

Dear President Ader,

I am writing to you in my capacity as President of the Royal College of Midwives, to express the full support of the RCM for Dr. Ágnes Geréb, and to kindly request that you reply positively to her request for a full Presidential pardon, and the cancellation of all criminal procedures against her and the other midwife involved in the same cases, Ágnes Kiraly. It is our hope that the granting of clemency will help create the conditions for further reforms of maternity care in Hungary. This would add to the momentum created by the Homebirth regulations introduced by the Fidesz government and Dr Miklos Szocska personally in April 2011. It is also our hope that Hungary might become an example to other countries in the region, still burdened with the legacy of authoritarian systems of medical care, left over from the Communist period.
We are aware that on February 10th, 2012, the Budapest Appeal Court announced the verdict in the case of Dr. Ágnes Geréb and four other Hungarian midwives. The terms of Ágnes Geréb’s sentence of two year imprisonment were tightened, and a ban on practising doubled to ten years. The Royal College of Midwives was deeply concerned to hear of this harsh verdict. We believe that allegations of negligence should not be judged by a criminal court, but by a professional regulatory body.

We would be glad to place at the disposal of you and the Government of Hungary, information about British and other international experience of maternity care reform, and in particular the part that professional regulatory organisations – in this case, a Board of Midwives – may play in dealing with allegations of negligence against their members. We further attach the media release of ICM and FIGO who have jointly called on the authorities in Hungary and other European countries to urgently address this issues of respect for the human rights of women – both as birth-givers, and as birth-carers.
We appreciate the efforts of the present Hungarian government which brought about the introduction of first-time homebirth legislation in 2011. However, the criminal proceedings against Dr. Geréb and the other midwives started before the implementation of the new regulations, and we believe that fairness and equity would demand that account now be taken of this.
Please use the scope and remit of your office and exercise your right to provide full presidential clemency for Dr: Geréb and cancel all criminal proceedings against her.
Yours sincerely,

Professor Lesley Page
President
On behalf of the Royal College of Midwives

ICM and FIGO join professional colleagues and other groups from across the world in registering our dismay and concern regarding the disproportionately harsh sentence of Dr. Agnes Gereb.

The situation that has arisen in Hungary, and in other countries of the European Union, is a breach of the fundamental human right of every woman to choose how and where she will give birth. In December 2010,  confirmed in March 2011, the European Court of Human Rights found that Hungary’s legislation that, by threat of criminal liability, dissuaded healthcare professionals from attending women who choose to give birth  at home “constitutes an interference with the exercise of the right to respect for private life by prospective mothers” (Ternovszky v. Hungary, paragraph 22). The Court accordingly found Hungary in violation of women’s rights under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

ICM and FIGO uphold the human right of every childbearing woman to have access to a midwife’s care for herself and her newborn.

There is strong evidence that out of hospital birth supported by a registered midwife is safe, and a preferred experience for many mothers. Women should not be denied this choice because of the lack of an adequate and enabling regulatory framework that makes it possible for midwives to practice their profession in any place that women choose to give birth.
Part of the difficulty in Hungary and other European countries seems to arise from an inadequate legal and regulatory framework for midwives to practice outside of a hospital. ICM and FIGO would like to work with any country to enable the appropriate regulatory mechanism to be developed and implemented in accordance with agreed international standards and competencies. European-wide regulation should make it legal for properly regulated midwives to work both inside and outside the hospital context, in accordance with women’s human rights recognized by the European Court of Human Rights.

ICM and FIGO call on the authorities in Hungary and other European countries where applicable, urgently to address this issue of respect for the human rights of women. We also call upon the European Union to honour its commitment to fundamental human rights and to halt, in the European countries where it exists, the criminalisation of midwifery.

Further information: Jed Stone ICM – j.stone@internationalmidwives.org / +31 70 3060520

http://www.figo.org/

http://www.internationalmidwives.org/

http://www.internationalmidwives.org/Portals/5/jedfiles/120308%20ICM%20FIGO%20statement.pdf

On women’s day the Birth House Association would like to emphasize the need for a new paradigm represented by the health care system, more closely the maternity care system – in this different paradigm the patient is not subordinated. In the present system mothers are rarely offered the possibility of choice in regard to their care, they are not provided sufficient information that are inevitably needed to be able to make conscious and responsible decisions.

Birth is one of the most important events in a woman’s life and it had been assisted by other women throughout the centuries. These women were the midwives. In his process men have the task to ensure a peaceful, safe and undisturbed environment for the women. Maternity systems today cannot provide this type of care. They do not establish a system of equivalence where women would have control over their own bodies.

Women should know what options, rights they have in a hospital and how they can use them as citizens who are aware of their rights. Women should not be victims of this patriarchal maternity system but its active and conscious participants who are able to bring about changes. The Birth House Association would like to assist the information campaign on women’s rights and become the initiator and facilitator in supporting self-autonomy over women’s own bodies.

Therefore we see the establishment of the midwifery model of care in the Hungarian maternity services as a significant step. In this process of establishment we look upon medical doctors and obstetricians as cooperative partners who are provided their just and honored position in this different model of care.

BirthHouse Association

by Aster Delgado

the Verdict is More Severe in the Case of Ágnes Geréb

The Hungarian Court sentenced Ágnes Geréb to two years imprisonment, the 5 year ban from practicing her profession had been changed to 10 years. She is the first Hungarian midwife-obstetrician ever to receive a sentence of imprisonment.

The Justice for Ágnes Geréb Movement and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union was shocked by the verdict. According to their position midwives were not provided the chance of real self-defense in front of the court. Although several international experts, among them the previous head of the World Health Organization (WHO) verified that Hungarian midwives did not commit any mistakes, the court had not considered their opinions and refused to hear them as witnesses.

The court applies a double standard: it judges hospital and out of institution births differently. While hospital doctors are rarely in front of a criminal court and their cases mostly end in suspension, in the case of midwives criminal procedure starts immediately when there are any complications.

In other countries issues of midwifery are discussed, investigated and judged in front of a professional board of obstetricians and midwives, in Hungary it is exclusively the doctors who submit their opinion having no experience with homebirth practices.

By today’s verdict the court maintains the criminalization of midwifery.

The HCLU and the Movement trusts in the positive judgment of the Hungarian President in relation to the presidential pardon submitted in the case of Ágnes Geréb and in that the President puts an end to the prosecution of midwives.

After the announcement of the verdict Elizabeth Prochaska, British human rights lawyer and Irene Walton, renowned British midwife-supervisor spoke in support of Hungarian midwives at the demonstration taking place in front of the court building.

Justice for Ágnes Geréb Movement

For further information please contact:

On 3rd February the court hearings of the second instance began of Dr. Ágnes Geréb and her four fellow midwives in front of the Budapest Tribunal. During the court hearing defense attorneys initiated the involvement and consideration of evidence from two Hungarian medical experts who challenge the opinion of experts already heard by the court in one specific case. The defense attorneys argued the importance of not closing the case, but of considering crucial new evidence before a final judgment.

The attorneys also repeatedly requested that the evidence of those international experts who – in contrast to the Interior Ministry experts already heard by the court – have extended knowledge and experience in home birth practices, be considered. Among the international experts are Professor Marsden Wagner who was head of the WHO Women and Children’sHealthCenterfor 15 years, and  two other international experts. Their written opinions were however blatantly disregarded by theBudapest Court, and their physical presence as witnesses was also refused.

The attorneys’ initiative was turned down by the Tribunal.

The Birth House Association and the Justice for Agnes Geréb Movement repeatedly calls attention to the sad and unfair situation that due to the failure to legally regulate home births in the past two decades, the most knowledgeable and experienced Hungarian midwives now face a criminal court. Despite the public and professional importance of these cases, the   midwives have been exclusively under criminal law. The criminalization of homebirth raises  serious human rights issues.

The final judgment will be announced on the 10^th of February, from 9 o’clock at the Budapest Tribunal, Budapest, 1055, Markó utca 16. The midwives will be allowed to make a final statement.

Please have your IDs ready to be able to enter the building.

http://www.peticiok.com/igazsagot_gereb_agnesnek

For further information please contact:

Gabriella Nagy

mobile: +36-572-2506

We, the undersigned express our indignation about the prejudicial, preconceived and unjust legal and medical campaign that has been orchestrated against the obstetrician-gynecologist, midwife and psychologist, Dr. Ágnes Geréb.

Dr. Ágnes Geréb is the internationally acclaimed midwife and first homebirth practitioner in Hungary. On October 5^th, 2010 while dealing with a homebirth she was arrested, imprisoned and subsequently transferred to house arrest, which she currently endures. In March, 2011, she was sentenced to two years imprisonment (currently under appeal) and suspended for five years from working as an obstetrician-gynecologist and midwife after being found guilty by a criminal court of negligent malpractice causing death and of negligent malpractice causing permanent damage. Her current house arrest remains in place solely to prevent Dr. Gereb from practicing as a midwife. The police and prosecution services are also completing their investigations into three homebirth-related incidents which lead to further criminal charges against Dr. Geréb.

We expect the Hungarian judicial system to provide fair and equal treatment for Ágnes  Geréb. We are not seeking a declaration of her innocence, but we call for the conditions to be put into place so that Dr. Geréb can defend herself properly in the criminal court. We believe the moves against Dr Geréb are intended to discredit her and by doing so make homebirth impossible, and the means to this end is the use of unjust legal procedure against her. There is clear evidence that the current judicial system applies double standards as to how it treats Dr. Geréb by comparison with hospital maternity doctors when adverse birth incidents arise. To begin with no other doctor in Hungary is, or ever has been, put under house arrest.  She remains the only doctor in Hungary ever sentenced to imprisonment because of malpractice, and she is the only doctor whose professional performance has been evaluated directly and solely by the criminal courts. All the medical specialists appointed by the courts as judicial experts are exclusively hospital doctors with a clear and often stated position against homebirth. The opinions they offer on the actions of Dr Geréb are based entirely on hospital protocols and the courts to-date have failed to counter this bias by refusing to engage the services of experienced midwives or international medical experts with homebirth experience. Not only do these hospital doctors fail in their duty to act impartially, but their suitability as experts is also in question when most of the medical procedures they cite in their criticisms of Dr Gereb’s actions are either refuted by the WHO or at the very least considered as questionable. These flawed court procedures and the nature of the sustained attacks against Dr. Geréb further strengthens the sense that we are witnessing a show trial. Probably the most striking example of this unfair and aggressive attitude can be seen by the flawed and unjust decision to keep Dr Geréb under house arrest for more than a year now. The officially stated position of the Court and the Prosecutor’s Office is that the house arrest is needed in order to avoid the danger of Dr. Geréb repeating “the crime”, even though it is blatantly obvious that intentional repetition in the case of negligence is conceptually impossible. Dr. Geréb’s current involvement with the criminal system is the direct consequence of Hungarian governments failure, for decades, to introduce the necessary legal framework required to support the constitutional right to homebirth. This failure to legislate has not only violated Dr Geréb’s rights but also the rights of other out-of-hospital birth attendants to have their birth actions evaluated impartially and professionally by a medical committee of their peers, rather than a criminal court.

Because of the foregoing, civilians and organizations who uphold and promote civil and human rights both inHungaryand abroad have now joined forces to create The Justice for Ágnes Geréb Movement.

The Movement’s first action is a request that the following four actions be undertaken to remove the anomalies and flawed procedures cited above:

1. We demand that the authorities immediately release Ágnes Geréb from house arrest.

2. We propose the suspension of the current criminal processes against all midwives until the legal framework for evaluating the actions of independent midwives at adverse birth incidents are properly formed. In our opinion the issues of who evaluates the actions of out-of-hospital practitioners and against which professional standards their actions are assessed, fulfills the criteria for the suspension of all current legal procedures.

3. We propose that out-of-hospital birth practitioners be legally recognized as an independent medical profession with the power to form its own professional supervising board, to agree its own working protocols, to create its own representative organization, and with the power to nominate midwives as appointed judicial experts when required for out-of-hospital birth enquiries.

4. For practical reasons we recommend that Dr. Geréb and others of her associates in the Napvilág Birth Centre, Hungary be genuinely involved with all the legislative processes related to out-of-hospital birth practices as they have many decades of experience in this field and also their expertise is internationally recognized.

We, in The Justice for Ágnes Geréb Movement, believe that a government which stands for justice will finally stop the repeated and continuous violation of the law concerning the criminal procedure against Ágnes Geréb and will intervene to allow her receive fair and equal legal treatment.

The Justice for Ágnes Geréb Movement

For further information please contact:

Donal Kerry
International Spokesperson
donalkerry@hotmail.com
Phone: 0036309242190