6 - Commentary on Robinson v. Cutchin

Summary

Robinson v. Cutchin involved the nonconsensual sterilization of an African-American woman because the doctor thought that she had enough children. Although unconsented to medical treatment presents a traditional tort claim for battery, the trial judge dismissed this claim because he considered the sterilization neither physically harmful nor offensive. The rewritten feminist opinion draws on the history of involuntary sterilization of women of color to conclude that such conduct is inherently outrageous and causes serious physical and emotional harm, and thus should be redressed as both a battery and as intentional infliction of emotional distress, with punitive damages. The feminist opinion highlights the ways the actual judgment distorts both the law and the reality of women’s experience of harm. The accompanying commentary situates this case in the history of racially based involuntary sterilization and both medical and judicial dismissiveness of the seriousness of the harm, and thus sheds light on how tort law has failed to deter this abusive practice.