CANBERRA, Australia, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Too many disabled women are being sterilized without court hearings in Australia, Federal Disability Commissioner Graeme Innes says.
Innes said sterilizations should only be done for medical reasons, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. He said courts may also be approving sterilizations when they are not appropriate.
Under Australian law, after a number of court rulings, parents cannot have children sterilized without approval from the Family Court. But Innes said he believes some doctors are finding ways to disguise their records to carry out procedures without court orders.
Stella Young, who edits Ramp Up, a disability Web site published by ABC, said she had a close call in childhood when she broke her leg while she was on vacation in Adelaide with her parents.
"One of the doctors said to them, 'while she's here we might as well do the hysterectomy,' which was shocking because I was a 4-year-old child," Young said. "My parents thankfully were very empowered and didn't take everything that doctors said to be gospel truth, and they got me out of there as quickly as possible."
