High Court reserves judgment on woman who refused treatment

The High Court has reserved judgment in proceedings aimed at securing the release of a South African woman who has been detained in a hospital for 11 months because she had refused to accept treatment for a suspected strain of drug-resistant Tuberculosis (TB).

Lawyers on behalf of the woman are asking the High Court to order her release under her Constitutional right to liberty, or habeus corpus. The case is being taken against the HSE, the hospital with the Attorney General and the Human Rights Commissioner which was joined by order of the High Court.