Recently a case in the UK got a lot of publicity and raised a question of whether people with learning disabilities and mental health issues should be allowed to have children. If so, who would be the primary guardian, and how would they participate in their children’s lives? Or would it be simpler and easier for the society to ban them to reproduce at all? Such a cruel measure was put into effect in the case of a young woman who was forced into having a contraceptive device implemented during her C-section.
A woman with learning disabilities who has given birth to a number of children should be fitted with a contraceptive device against her will, a Court of Protection Mrs. Justice Gwyneth Knowles has decided.
The woman, who is in her 20s and has had children taken into care, was pregnant again and due to give birth soon. The judge said a contraceptive device should be fitted when the woman was having a planned cesarean section.
Previously, the young mother said that she would agree to have contraception via three-monthly injections but did not want to be fitted with a contraceptive device. The device was necessary since the doctors doubted her intentions of coming to the scheduled appointments.
The judge decided that fitting a contraceptive device would be in the woman’s best interests. She concluded that the woman did not have the mental capacity to make decisions about contraception.
