032874 Federal funds Barred For Sterilization of Minors

WASHINGTON, D.C. (RNS) - A federal judge has ruled illegal all regulations allowing government funds to be used for sterilization of minors or mentally incompetent persons.

U.S. District Court Judge Gerhard A. Gesell said that new regulations of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) are ''arbitrary and unreasonable" and do not offer adequate protection against involuntary sterilization of incompetent minors and adults and poor people.

He ordered HEW to redraft its regulation to "ensure that all sterilizations funded... are voluntary in the full sense of the term and that sterilization of incompetent minors and adults is prevented."

The regulations violate "a basic human right to procreate," Judge Gesell said.

The New HEW regulations were written following a controversy triggered last year by the sterilization at a government-funded clinic of two black girls in, Alabama, both minors, one mentally retarded.

Under the regulations, legally competent adults must give their "informed consent" to sterilization. Mental incompetents and minors must give written consent and have it approved by a special committee.

However, critics have argued that the guidelines do not give adequate protection against involuntary sterilization and coercion. A suit was brought by the National Welfare Rights Organization, charging that the rules were unconstitutional and illegal.

Judge Gesell agreed that the regulations were illegal, since Congress never authorized the use of federal family planning funds for involuntary sterilization.

He said substantial portions of the regulations must be revised to ensure that all federally funded sterilizations were voluntary in the full sense of the word.

No person who is mentally incompetent can meet the standards of voluntary and truly informed consent, Judge Gesell ruled. He said minors would also appear to lack the
knowledge, maturity and judgment to satisfy standards of voluntary informed consent.

The use of representatives to speak or sign for the minor or incompetent person was also barred in sterilization cases, which involves an irreversible operation.

Sterilizations in general are increasing in the U.S. to a point where it is now of clear national significance. HEW estimates that one partner in more than 16 per cent of married couples aged 20-39 has had a sterilization operation.

He said between 2,000 and 3,000 people under 21 are sterilized each year. Figures were not available on the number of mentally incompetent persons sterilized.