What are your thoughts on this? (Current Events)?

Question

A mother wants her disabled 15 year old daughter to have a hysterectomy so she won't have to go through her periods each month.

What do you think?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7032736.stm

Answer 1

I think Katie's carers should decide. Katie is incapable of making her own decisions and she is never going to get married or have a family - her parents clearly love her and only want what is best for her. How do you explain menstrual cramps or mood swings to a girl who doesn't understand the concept of male and female??

A friend of mine had a severly disabled sister. She lived in a home as she could be very agressive but at certain times of the month she became very sexually agressive. The home's policy at the time was that, unless she asked for it herself she wouldn't be given birth control. This girl, who had the mental age of a 1 year old became pregnant and was given an abortion. Does it not make far more sense to provide birth control or even a hysterectomy in cases like this??

Answer 2

we dont know the circumstances or the level of the girl's disability. I have worked with young people who have special needs & believe me it is a very hard decision for any mother to make. I say this as there was one mum who had her 15 year old daughter sterilized & that mum agonised over the decision as her daughter was an only child & she would have loved to have been a grandmother. She knew though her daughter would have been unable to cope had she fallen pregnant . She knew her daughter could have been taken advantage of & not really understand what was going on. Her fear was that if anything happened to her ( she was a widow) who would take care of the baby let alone her daughter. She discussed it with her G.P. & doctors dont make the decision with out really careful thought on how the girl would cope etc.if she had a baby. The short answer was she wouldn't cope.
So before we all condemn this mum who wants a hysterectomy for her daughter , maybe we should put ourselves in her position & ask what would we do if it were our child. AS I said before we dont know the extent of this girls disability.
another point is that they bexcome very sexually aware & xcan also become violent. I've been pinned against a wall or had things thrown at me. Yet they can be very loving But the mood can change at the blink of an eye.

Answer 3

This is a difficult one. The girl herself appears to be so severely disabled that there is no question of her making any such decision. As Storm rightly points out, if the girl is wearing pads anyway then periods don't seem to be an insurmoutable problem. It is also not too clear from the article if she has even begun to menstruate and, if so, if she is one of the unfortunate women who really suffer during menstruation. A hysterectomy at that that age really does seem an extreme solution to the problem.

Answer 4

I really feel sorry for his mum, what a decision to have to make. But I believe it should be up to the mother to decide, obviously with the help of her GP or consultant. This woman is obviously doing everything to care for her daughter and making all her decisions so why should she not be allowed to make this choice for her if she feels it is in her daughter's best interests.

It might be easier for the daughter if a partial or subtotal hysterectomy was considered. This would remove the womb but she would keep her ovaries and hormones therefore avoiding menopause and brittle bones etc., but it would eliminate her periods and her ability to get pregnant.

Answer 5

I've answered another question about this and I just don't know.

Having worked closely with girls and woman with severe mental and learning disabilities I know first hand how distressing periods are to many of them. The physical discomfort, not understanding that they are bleeding but not about to die and the heightened levels of aggression and anger around that time of the month.

I was pinned up against a wall on more than one occasion.

But is this reason enough to take away their ability to reproduce all together? Many already take (or are given, they don't understand what it is) the contraceptive pill to give some control to them and the staff working closely with them (IE aim to be off around that time of the month!).

Most don't have the mental capacity to make a decision to have children but they still have the right? Is having children a right or a privilege? I think it is a privilege.

I can fully understand all the 'it should be the girls choice' answers but the fundamental fact is, further than choosing between the red top and the blue top, many people living with severe mental disabilities don't have the ability to make a choice of that monumental proportion.

Answer 6

Its is a difficult question ethically.

I once worked in a mental health facility with a woman with severe brain damage, who probably had no idea about sexuality, and needed gentle "reminders" around elimination. She was able, however, to ask a female staff member for a pad when needed, and ask to have it changed. In this facility, the staff were sensitive and caring.

Bur every case is different.

Answer 7

Wrong, I work with people who do not understand periods, but its OK, staff can deal with it for them, or in that case the mother. Its not such a big thing. If the girl is incontinent of urine and feaces, then the period is much less of a bother than that.
If the girl wears pads, anyway, I fail to see the difference in the deposits in the pads.


*edit* has no one noticed Kamrans opinion? Is that slightly over the top for Gods sake?

Answer 8

well, it depends on how disabled she is. If the girl cannot function on her own, it might be good, if she has, say a crippling illness or condition, the periods might be a pain, but the girl could still handle them. I knew a disabled girl that handled that stuff fine, but she told me once that being disabled, and a girl was a real problem sometimes.

Answer 9

Cerebral palsy has many tiers, and for all of us who did not see this female on the information, i can inform you she is extremely critically disabled, and heavily isn't waiting to be a mom herself, not to point out a solid one as somebody has stated. i don't understand whether her mom has a "precise" to have this operation executed on her daughter, yet IMO this is specific she has the daughter's superb hobbies at coronary heart, and is not doing it for her very own convenience. the girl is doubly incontinent for God's sake, so I doubt the mum is demanding with regard to the greater inconvenience of a era each and each month. She's in basic terms attempting to stay away from her daughter dealing with from now on discomfort than she has to. i'm unsure whether the point could not greater effective be performed by skill of hormone implants, yet it incredibly is a doctor's determination not mine. till you have been in an identical difficulty, who right here has the main suitable to decide the mum?

Answer 10

A very hard question to answer,so if the girl is having a lot of pain maybe yes. The best person to know and make that decision would be the mother, on advice from her doctor.