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Physiology and Health
Commonsense
Why we Should Allow Sterilization of a Mentally Retarded Person
By Dr. W. Gifford Jones
June 5, 2005
If these people cannot care for themselves how can they care for a child?
Would you employ them as a baby-sitter to look after your own child?
If we assume that abortion should not be a method of contraception then it is morally wrong to refuse these people a sterilzation procedure
The fact they cannot provide informed consent is not a valid point. Neither can they give informed consent to any other procedure such as an appendectomy or the need for an antibiotic.
If there is no law it cannot be an illegal act until such a law is passed
Those opposed to sterilization should take a retarded child into their home for a few weeks. They would soon change their mind.
There s nothing more irrational than someone who is rationally irrational.
I wrote a column about this issue years ago and 95 percent of readers agreed that sterilization of the mentally retarded made sense. Readers did not consider this matter a contentious issue.
How can a child who cannot feed herself, place one block on another or cannot look after bodily functions care for another child? These children require total protection from themselves.
There are known cases where a retarded child has delivered five other retarded children by age 21
The government to my knowledge has never placed a parent of a retarded child on a committee to study this matter.
The opponents of sterilization live in a never-never land of theory and make-believe.
The law against sterilization of the mentally retarded is an ass, a cruel legalistic ruling. hopefully someone will deliver us from this plague of lawyers.
The SupremeCourt Justices should get rid of their maids and cleaning help and taking a menatlly retarded child onto their home.
When a retarded child becomes pregnant and on the delivery table she will not understand what put her there, why she is in such pain and who gave her this great privilege. The decision to disallow sterilization is simply another nail into the coffin of common snese.
W. Gifford-Jones M.D is the pen name of Dr. Ken Walker graduate of The Harvard Medical School. He's been a ship's surgeon, hotel physician and family doctor and later trained in surgery at McGill in Montreal, University of Rochester N.Y. and Harvard. His medical column is published by 60 Canadian newspapers and several in the U.S. He is the author of seven books. Dr. Walker has a medical practice in Toronto. His Web site is: www.mydoctor.ca/gifford-jones. He can be reached at letters@canadafreepress.com
