Here’s a sticky wicket for you: the mother of a 21-year-old mentally challenged woman in Britain is asking a court for permission to sterilize her daughter so she will not continue getting pregnant. The daughter, who is referred to in court as P to protect her anonymity, already has two young children who are being raised by P’s mother, Mrs. P, who lives with them. However, Mrs. P said she cannot financially support a larger family and that when she took her daughter to a family planning clinic, she refused to get a contraceptive injection (Depo Provera). As Mrs. P described it, if P were to become pregnant again, Mrs. P would put the baby up for adoption. The nature of P’s mental difficulties are not explained by the Guardian, but Mrs. P told the court that P does not seem to understand the gravity of the situation. “I tried to explain that any future babies will go to a new mum and dad,” Mrs. P said. “She doesn’t understand that she won’t ever see them again. She says, ‘I’m the mummy’. She doesn’t understand they will get a new mum.”
Mrs. P continued, “I want the best for my daughter. We are supporting and helping her, bringing up her children and keeping them together as family unit. Obviously we can’t carry on supporting more and more children. She doesn’t see anything wrong in her behavior.” The judge handling the case, however, said that expert evidence was not available to make a judgment and he declined to rule on an “extremely serious and important” issue without it. Keep reading »
