ABSTRACT
This chapter deals primarily with the medico-legal issues arising from the medical procedure of sterilisation when it is performed on mentally incompetent patients, usually female (with some rare exceptions), who might be minors or adults, as an act of medical paternalism, where it is claimed by a third party, usually a relative or a healthcare professional, and approved by a court, as being in the ‘best interests’ of the patient. The chapter concentrates on English law, although reference will be made to the Canadian case of Re Eve, in the context of discussing a leading English case (Re B), and also focuses on contraceptive sterilisation, where the intention is the permanent removal of reproductive capacity, again as a means of protection from an ‘unwanted’ pregnancy with which the incompetent or mentally handicapped patient is perceived as being unable to cope. The discussion, therefore, does not dwell on consensual sterilisation when it is opted for as a voluntary and increasingly popular means of contraception by willing and competent adults. A subsequent chapter in Part II examines developments in common law jurisdictions such as the USA and Australia and civil law jurisdictions like Germany (see Chapter 15). This chapter also considers the latest English cases dealing with failed sterilisations, contrasting the approach of the courts to healthy and handicapped offspring produced from such failed procedures.
