woman mental age 5 should she be sterlised
 

richard is my boyfriend is a drama , based on a real case , on tonight at 11.05pm channel 4 tonight . a woman aged 24 but mental age 5 gets pregnant by her disabled boyfriend , is given an abortion pill her mother brought off the internet has miscarriage should she be sterlised . her mother says yes her father says no . what do you think and will you watch it , i am . just wanted your views on the matter .:puzzled:

Shades of nazism in the forced sterilisation of what they described as the "mentally subnormal"

In my opinion a surgical procedure should not be performed on anyone unable to fully understand the consequences and the risks, even a relatively low risk key-hole procedure. Unless not having the surgery is life threatening. Again there are arguments on both sides for that regarding that woman and pregnancy

Though the matter of pregnancy in this case is a problem, and loathe as I would be to suggest medication to anyone unable to fully understand possible side effects, you must assume this woman is supervised almost all the time, in which case a monthly contraceptive jab could be a solution.

A tricky one, with arguments on all sides.
Not a decision I would like to have to be involved in for real if it concerned a child of mine

if her parents are willing to bring the child up as their own thats good to keep it in the family, but then you've got a '5 year old' being pregnant and going through childbirth/c section etc and will be terrified about what is happening.

i'm not sure how i feel about her being in an adult relashonship if she is mentally only 5 she obviously doesn't know what is going on.

i dont think i'll be watching.

Its such a hard one, I have a brother, who doesnt have the mental age that he is. Now, he see his brother and sisters who have partners and desperately wants what we have, someone to love.

He just wants to be loved

We have had occations in the past where when he has dated, a few women have taken him for a major ride and got money out of him and even claimed that she was expecting his baby and therefore demanded money.

Should he be given the snip??? Of course not...... he is a human being and as a supportive family we have to stand by his wish to look for love even if this results in goodness knows what.

Should this young girl be given a forced steralised??? same answer, no!

yes I watched this programme last night and it was really sad too the only thing that I dissagreed with was where the mother got a tablet off the internet just to give her daughter a miscarriage but the father soon stepped in and tryed to get his daughter strerrlised by the dr but the mother didnt want it to happen but to me i think the father did the right thing in trying to get his daughter to enjoy her outside world.:thumbs:

No, I don't think she should be sterilised under any circumstances. I agree with spacebandit though, that it is a very tricky decision, and I would hate to have to make it.

No matter what her condition, I don't believe any operation should be forced upon her, as she would not even be able to understand what is being done to her.

People will say that it is for her own good. What they really mean is that they are trying to justify making that decision for her.

I watched this programme last night and it was so striking...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say she should be sterilised, this is because watching that miscarriage scene was really haunting. I know the sterilisation process is criticised a lot in this woman because she won't understand what is being done to her - but this is also the case when she had the miscarriage. She didn't know what was happening with her, it would be enough to confuse and stay with someone that had a mature mental age, but I daren't even think what was going through her mind when she was bleeding and had infections etc.

The sterilisation process doesn't mean she stops loving people, having relationships - infact I think it encourages her to live a more normal life, where her parents don't have to watch her every move to ensure she doesn't get pregnant (because as the mother so rightly brought up, what would happen to the child once it was born? Is that so fair?).

People saying that this operation would be forced upon her because she doesn't understand it - surely, therefore, sex is being forced upon her? The subsequent miscarriage was forced upon her?

Lauren that is very true :laugh:

Yes, that's true. Doesn't make sterilising her right though. The day that people start making decisions about sterilising people because [they think it's the best thing for her, is a very sad one indeed.

it just isnt as easy as popping to the doctors to ask for someone with a learning disability to be sterilised. The human rights act says that people with a learning disability have the right to refuse this procedure, however the problem then lies with understanding and informed decision making.

This is generally left to the courts to consider. When considering this type of thing they look at whether there are no other ways that this issue can be dealt with without this type of invasive procedure, the likely impact of a pregnancy on the person, the capapcity to understand information provided to them.

All that said and done I just dont agree with it. There are many many forms of contraception that can simply be taken orally if the risk of pregnancy is so high without going down the surgical route. This used to happen a lot years ago to people with downs and recent research suggests that many people with downs might in fact be born infertile.

I can totally agree with this viewpoint as well. I'd hate to think that someone has such power over another person as to make life-changing decisions for them. However, there are times when this has to happen - if she's not sterilised then the mother wouldn't allow her to have sex with her boyfriend - which is just forcing another decision on her.

Edit: And Sunny, there are oral contraceptives made available to the girl, but she's at such an age where there would need to be constant administering of them by her mother - who would not be able to tell/check whether she has took them etc. Something the mother said she was not prepared to do.

so she has the right to refuse her oral medication but not to refuse drastic surgery!! bizzare if you ask me. I am still against them taking such drastic action

I also find it odd that her mother is not prepared to monitor her taking the oral contraception but will happily give her a tablet to induce abortion or have her sterilised.

Indeed. The way I see it is by refusing sterilisation she has it in her mind that it's delaying her daughter having sex (which she doesn't want her to do).

that drama was so upsetting for me as lauren will no , my twins are 16 but mentally aged 8-10 yrs old , i wanted you to watch it so i could have your views on the situation me and my husband may have to take with our daughter amy , would she understand what was going on with her body if she became pregnant , and the birth process if it went that far , i as a mother do not think she would understand or think it would be fair for her to go through this ,so we may go for the sterlisation progress so she would not have to go through that , i dont belive in abortion unless the mothers life is at risk or the baby would have no quality of life or if a woman was raped . yes there is contraceptives out there amy is epileptic and we have already been told that if she became pregnant on the medication shes on the likely out come would be a deformed baby .

Sarah :hug: I can only imagine how upsetting that must have been to watch it for you, but I hope it made things clearer to you. As Amy's mother you know in your heart what is best for her - as the person she cares for most you have the right to make a decision for her. Whatever you do concerning this, I hope it all turns out well.

:hug::hug::hug: lauren that means so much to me hearing that from you , thank you ,reading what you said brought a tears to my eyes :hug: thank you xx

i dont think that a women who's menatl age is 5 should be having an adult relationship, she is mentally too young to feel any thing sexual and would not understand what is going on surley!

a person with a mental age of 5 will (in my opinion) want to play with her toys etc not be involved in a relatioship which includes sex !

I'm amazed that people can say that they are against abortion, but think it's okay to sterilise someone, who has not made the decision herself to be sterilised!

i take it that is that last post was for my bennifit

Well, I'm not arguing with you, and I didn't mean for my post to sound rude, so apologies if it came across that way. It's a debate about a subject which is bound to raise emotions and lots of different viewpoints. I'm just giving my opinion, same as everyone else.

I share your opinion Ruth and by no means do I mean to upset anyone. I just cant get my head round it, there are so many ways of tackling this issue without the need for invasive surgery. That said I am not in that position, a friend has been and was agasht when her mother suggested sterilisation, she chose not to even consider it.

This may come across as me sounding patronising or something, but I don't know how else to put it without it sounding nicer.

I'm going to assume that both Ruth and Sunny don't have first-hand experience of this issue, as in... their own daughter experiencing it (Allow me to be corrected?), and although I fully accept that we're all allowed our opinions on the subject - to criticise someones decision for what they see fit for their OWN DAUGHTER - is just silly. Perhaps you don't agree with it, perhaps you see it as hypocritical in light of abortion (although sterilisation isn't killing a life!!) but someone isn't going to make a decision for their own daughter that would not benefit her in a way.

Perhaps someone with the mental age of 5 has not made the decision to be sterilised Ruth, but neither has she made the decision to have sex, to have an abortion (which lets face it, is what will have to happen unless it's adopted - also bad for the child). Therefore the lesser of the decisions is to sterilise, and I congratulate sarah for seeing what she see's as best for her daughter despite what other people may think - and also a general kudos for the hard work it must take to look after her children, she doesn't get enough appreciation for it.

(PS. I am in no way attacking others opinions, we're all entitled to them - I just think it's "silly" to say someone is hypocritical when making a decision they see best for their own child).

I find it a bit strange that an adult would want/have sex with someone who has a mental age of 5.

He had down syndrome so he also had a reduced mental age, also she has the body and (as far as I know) the needs of her actual age.

lauren thank you for your support means so much:hug: