Forced Sterilization: "coaxed, bribed, or even enticed"

           In our class, we recently discussed the case of Ashley and her treatment. Ashley is a girl born with static encephalopathy, meaning that her mental age will never surpass that of a three-month-old. Her parents decided to stunt her growth with hormone treatment, while at the same time removing her breast buds and sterilizing her through a hysterectomy. No one in our class argued that Ashley’s treatment was wrong.

            The case of Mary Moe draws many parallel’s to that of Ashley, although I think our class would have a more harder time agreeing on Mary’s case. Mary Moe is an alias for a 32-year-old woman from Massachusetts.

            Moe is currently pregnant for the third time her life, and is in no shape to raise a child. She has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar mood disorder. In between her first pregnancy, which ended in abortion, and her second, which ended with a boy now in custody of Moe’s parents, Moe has been had “psychotic breaks” and has been hospitalized numerous times.

            Moe’s parents wanted to abort their daughter’s current pregnancy and took the case to family court, in which the judge concluded that Moe be “coaxed, bribed or even enticed” to a hospital in order to be sterilized. The case was appealed.

            Moe is clearly unfit to raise a child, and her pregnancies are creating heavy burdens, of which she carries little carries little weight. Moe should be forced to take birth control until, if ever, her condition improves. 

            Saying that is easy, but justifying forced sterilization, even temporarily in the form of birth control bills, is not so easy. Moe’s case is so ethically messy because she is apposed to abortion, calling herself “very Catholic,” and does not want to take birth control of be sterilized.

            Big picture utilitarianism offers a potential justification. Allowing Moe to potentially get pregnant again puts a large burden on her parents and society, while doing very little to make her happy, as she will have little connection with the child. The result is a net negative. Forcing her to take birth control bills makes Moe unhappy, but this unhappiness, I argue, is outweighed in order of magnitude by the burden it lifts on the people carry the weight of Moe’s actions. Forcing Moe to take birth control pills leads to a net positive situation.

            What to do with Moe’s current pregnancy is a much messier issue.

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/19/10194487-sterilization-forced-abortion-are-never-the-answer-bioethicist-says