The U.K.’s Court of Protection’s Mrs. Justice Eleanor King has ruled that a 36-year-old male lacks the “mental capacity to use contraception” and is ordering sterilization for “his best interests.”
The Telegraph reports that the case in which the ruling was rendered arose from a man with learning difficulties–identified by the letters “DE”–having a son in 2010 with a woman who also has learning difficulties.
After this, DE was ordered to remain under supervision to be sure no more children could be conceived.
The child is cared for by his maternal grandmother and the court ruled that if the couple were to have another child “it would be taken into care.” To prevent this, the court has now ordered the man to undergo a vasectomy.
In my judgement is overwhelmingly in DE’s best interests to have a vasectomy. That being said, the court does not make such an order lightly, conscious as it is that for the court to make an order permitting the lifelong removal of a person’s fertility for non-medical reasons requires strong justification.
This was according to Justice King.
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