Virginia § 54.1-2976 - Sterilization operations for certain adults incapable of informed consent

§ 54.1-2976. Sterilization operations for certain adults incapable of informed consent

It shall be lawful for any physician licensed by the Board of Medicine to perform a vasectomy, salpingectomy, or other surgical sexual sterilization procedure on a person eighteen years of age or older, who does not have the capacity to give informed consent to such an operation, when:

1. A petition has been filed in the circuit court of the county or city wherein the person resides by the person's parent or parents, guardian, spouse, or next friend requesting that the operation be performed;

2. The court has made the person a party defendant, served the person, the person's guardian, if any, the person's spouse, if any, and if there is no spouse, the person's parent with notice of the proceedings and appointed for the person an attorney-at-law to represent and protect the person's interests;

3. The court has determined that a full, reasonable, and comprehensible medical explanation as to the meaning, consequences, and risks of the sterilization operation to be performed and as to alternative methods of contraception has been given by the physician to the person upon whom the operation is to be performed, to the person's guardian, if any, to the person's spouse, if any, and, if there is no spouse, to the parent;

4. The court has determined (i) that the person has been legally adjudged to be incapacitated in accordance with Chapter 20 (§ 64.2-2000 et seq.) of Title 64.2 and (ii) that the person is unlikely to develop mentally to a sufficient degree to make an informed judgment about sterilization in the foreseeable future;

5. The court, to the greatest extent possible, has elicited and taken into account the views of the person concerning the sterilization, giving the views of the person such weight in its decision as the court deems appropriate;

6. The court has complied with the requirements of § 54.1-2977; and

7. The court has entered an order authorizing a qualified physician to perform the operation not earlier than thirty days after the date of the entry of the order, and thirty days have elapsed. The court order shall state the date on and after which the sterilization operation may be performed.

1981, c. 454, § 54-325.11; 1988, c. 765; 1997, c. 921.