In re a Teenager, 29 August 1988
Annual Review of Population Law 15: 21
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0364-3417 PMID: 12289415 Document Number: 383596
A physically healthy but severely mentally retarded handicapped girl, aged 15, sought through a "next friend" an injunction to prevent her parents from authorizing a doctor to perform a hysterectomy upon her. The parents sought the hysterectomy in order to prevent the onset of menstruation, which they believed would seriously affect her development and quality of life. The Family Court of Australia dismissed the application for an injunction. It rejected the argument that reasonable alternatives should be tried before the hysterectomy was performed. It held that parents have a right and duty to make major decisions about medical treatment, including major operations, whether their children are mentally retarded or not. It ruled that a Court should interfere only in exceptional circumstances and that there was nothing warranting interference in this case. It concluded that the benefits of the operation greatly outweighed the risks of the operation as well as the risks of alternative treatments.