Parents allowed to sterilise daughter in Australia

Sydney: The parents of a profoundly disabled 11-year-old girl have won a court case to have her sterilised, prompting claims that the ruling amounted to an "abuse of human rights".

The Australian girl, known only as Angela, suffers from an extreme form of Retts Syndrome, a neurological disorder. She cannot communicate and "acts as a three-month-old baby would".

Angela's parents had sought permission from the Family Court for doctors to perform an irreversible hysterectomy — the removal of her womb — to stop her menstrual cycle, which they believed was the cause of her epileptic seizures. Her mother told the court that her daughter had experienced irregular menstrual periods since she was aged nine that caused her pain and exhaustion. Medication had not worked, and three gynaecologists had agreed that a hysterectomy was the best solution, she said.

However, Queensland Health, the government body responsible for carrying out the surgery, would not approve the procedure without a court order. Justice Paul Cronin, ruling in the Brisbane family court, said the decision would improve Angela's life and was "in the child's best interests".

Necessary

He said the procedure was "urgent and necessary".

"Angela is never going to have the benefits of a normal teenage and adult life," his judgement said. "A fundamental consideration is ... the risks to Angela's life as well as her general health."

The court heard Angela could not speak or control her movements and relied on her parents to be fed, transported and washed. She had no bladder control, wore a nappy and had a walking frame because she could not stand unsupported. A paediatrician said pregnancy would be "disastrous" for Angela.

The ruling incensed disability groups. They said forced sterilisation of any girl was an abuse of human rights. Carolyn Frohmader, chief executive of Women with a Disability Australia, said: "It is only ever the disabled girls. When you go through the cases, there is never a boy, no matter how intellectually disabled, who has to be sterilised."

Therese Sands, executive director of People with Disability Australia, said: "It is our view that nobody has the right to sterilise a child, not a judge, not a parent, not unless it's a matter of life or death." But not all disability campaigners agreed. Mark Patterson, executive director of the National Council on Intellectual Disability, admitted the issue "is a very difficult one".