Australia: Call for ban on sterilising people with disabilities

THE federal Disability and Sex Discrimination Commissioners Graeme Innes and Elizabeth Broderick have called on the Attorney-General to ban the sterilisation of children, regardless of whether they have a disability, unless there is a compelling medical reason.

They also said that adults with a disability should not be sterilised without their informed consent.

''It is the Commission's position that [sterilisation] shouldn't occur apart from therapeutic circumstances,'' Mr Innes said. ''Even if it is occurring, there should be court supervision and that is not happening in many cases.''

The sterilisation of intellectually disabled women and girls is seriously under-reported, Mr Innes said, and the Commission has anecdotal evidence that girls are still being sterilised by doctors who bypass regulations requiring them to apply to courts for permission.

Mr Innes is working with the Family Court of Australia and all the guardianship boards across Australia to update the numbers of officially sanctioned sterilisations.

''The numbers from the Family Court will be low, and when we get the data back from the guardianship boards, it will be relatively low,'' Mr Innes said.

''Is that because it's not going on or that they're not being asked? I think it's the latter.''

Mr Innes said he was talking to the Attorney-General about unifying sterilisation regulations, which vary from state to state.

Under-reporting was found to be widespread the last time sterilisation was researched; in 2001, by Women With Disabilities Australia, and in 1997, when the Human Rights Commission last examined the issue.

Date: 7 September 2011

Source: Sydney Morning Herald