Non-therapeutic sterilisation makes history
“In my judgment it is overwhelmingly in DE’s best interests to have a vasectomy.” In making this conclusion Mrs Justice Eleanor King DBE brought to an end a lengthy, careful and above all compassionate judgment in which she made legal history by ordering that it was lawful for the Applicant NHS Trust to sterilise a male patient with a learning disability.
The patient, known as “DE”, is a 36-year-old man with an IQ of 40, equivalent to the mental age of a six- to nine-year-old child. He lives with his supportive parents whom the judge rightly praised for their commitment to “work tirelessly to give him the best possible quality of life”. He has a longstanding girlfriend who also has learning disabilities and in 2009 she became pregnant. Tests confirmed DE’s paternity which was a profound shock to the parents and shook the usually harmonious family environment. The parents took him to his GP to ask for a vasectomy to be performed. The GP in turn referred him to the Applicant Trust.
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