Re M. (A Minor) (Wardship: Sterilisation) [1 December 1987
Annual Review of Population Law 16: 22
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0364-3417 PMID: 12344341 Document Number: 383289
The UK local authority sought permission to have a sterilization performed on a 17-year old girl in its care. Although the girl had become sexually aware, she had a mental age of 5 and had no understanding of pregnancy or feelings of motherhood. Evidence was presented that childbirth would harm her mental health and that if a child was born there was a 50% chance that it would be mentally retarded. The court gave permission for the sterilization as in the best interests of the girl because of the traumatic effects that she would experience if she became pregnant. It also ruled that the sterilization should not be authorized on eugenic grounds.