Patients have no right to demand C-sections, says Turkish Health Minister

Highlighting once again the above-average number of Caesarean sections performed in the country, Turkish Health Minister Mehmet Müezzionoğlu has warned patient that they do not have the right to demand such operations.

"Demanding a natural birth is a natural right of the patient and this is the way it should be," Müezzinoğlu told a group of reporters in Parliament on Dec. 19.

"It is the duty of the midwives and the doctors to prepare them for the birth. The patients cannot say ‘I want a C-section, they do not have such a right."

The government in 2012 moved to regulate abortion and C-section births by making them far more difficult to obtain than before. The government said its policy was designed to encourage families to have more children and prevent doctors from pushing women into unnecessary surgery with potentially serious consequences, although women's groups excoriated the government for its perceived interference in citizens' reproduction rights.

"The doctors' job is to fulfill their medical responsibilities, not to follow the patients' demands," Müezzinoğlu added. "Doctors must give the medical services that the patients have right to, C-section is not one of those rights."

The health minister said the rate of C-section births was around 15-17 percent, whereas the number is almost 50 percent in Turkey. He said the ministry has started to send letters to the doctors who have high C-section rates and sanctions will be applied in the future to those who do not meet "certain criteria" in such operations.