WUNRN
FIGO - International Federation of
Gynecology & Obstetrics
New
FIGO Guidelines on Female Contraceptive Sterilization and Informed Consent: How
to Comply
Direct Link to 4-Page FIGO Guidelines:
FEMALE CONTRACEPTIVE STERILIZATION
Background
1. Human rights include
the right of individuals to control and decide on matters of their own
sexuality and reproductive health, free from coercion, discrimination and
violence. This includes the right to decide whether and when to have children,
and the means to exercise this right.
2. Surgical sterilization
is a widely used method of contraception. An ethical requirement is that
performance be preceded by the patient’s informed and freely given consent,
obtained in compliance with the Guidelines Regarding Informed Consent ( 2007)
and on Confidentiality (2005). Information for consent includes, for instance,
that sterilization should be considered irreversible, that alternatives exist
such as reversible forms of family planning, that life circumstances may
change, causing a person later to regret consenting to sterilization, and that
procedures have a very low but significant failure rate.
3. Methods of
sterilization generally include tubal ligation or other methods of tubal
occlusion. Hysterectomy is inappropriate solely for sterilization, because of
disproportionate risks and costs.
4. Once an informed choice
has been freely made, barriers to surgical sterilization should be minimised.
In particular: a) sterilization should be made available to any person of adult
age; b) no minimum or maximum number of children may be used as a criterion for
access; c) a partner’s consent must not be required, although patients should
be encouraged to include their partners in counseling; d) physicians whose
beliefs oppose participation in sterilization should comply with the Ethical
Guidelines on Conscientious Objection (2005).
5. Evidence exists,
including by governmental admission and apology, of a long history of forced
and otherwise non-consensual sterilizations of women, including Roma women in
Europe and women with disabilities. Reports have documented the coerced
sterilization of women living with HIV/AIDS in Africa and Latin America. Fears
remain that ethnic and racial minority, HIV-positive, low-income and drug-using
women, women with disabilities and other vulnerable women.....................
See above link to full 4-Page FIGO
Guidelines.