Law Commons^™

Case And Comment: Between The Baby And The Breast, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

IN Re C (A CHILD) (HIV Test) [1999] 2 F.L.R. 1004, a local authority applied for a specific issue order to test a four-month-old baby girl for HIV. The mother of the child first tested positive for HIV in 1990, but adopted a highly sceptical stance towards generally accepted theories about HIV and AIDS, and refused conventional therapy for herself, preferring to rely on a healthy lifestyle as a prophylactic. The case arose when the baby's physician became aware not only that the mother was breastfeeding the child (despite the risk of transmission of HIV), but that the parents refused …