Tchoukhrova

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Evgueni Tchoukhrova was born in 1991 in Vladivostok, Russia with infantile cerebral paralysis, or cerebral palsy. His disability resulted chiefly from the negligence of members of the staff of the Russian state-owned hospital, who first induced his mother’s labor and then abandoned her for the entire night, during which time the fetus did not receive suffi- cient oxygen. The next morning, because the induced labor had stopped, hospital personnel decided to forcibly extract the child from its mother’s body, breaking its neck in the process. Instead of giving the newborn child medical care, they ini- tially threw Evgueni into a container holding abortion and other medical waste, telling his mother that “they didn’t see the reason why he needed to live.” The mother, Victoria Tchoukhrova, having lost a lot of blood, fell into a state of unconsciousness.

Against all odds and despite the staff’s neglect, Evgueni survived, and was retrieved from the disposal bin. As soon as she became conscious again, Victoria commenced pleading to see her son, without success. She was told that he was severely disabled and that she should “refuse” him. After five…