2006 Code of Virginia § 54.1-2976 - Sterilization operations for certain adults incapable of informed consent

54.1-2976. Sterilization operations for certain adults incapable ofinformed consent.

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

1. A petition has been filed in the circuit court of the county or citywherein 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, theperson's guardian, if any, the person's spouse, if any, and if there is nospouse, the person's parent with notice of the proceedings and appointed forthe person an attorney-at-law to represent and protect the person's interests;

3. The court has determined that a full, reasonable, and comprehensiblemedical explanation as to the meaning, consequences, and risks of thesterilization operation to be performed and as to alternative methods ofcontraception has been given by the physician to the person upon whom theoperation is to be performed, to the person's guardian, if any, to theperson'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 tobe incapacitated in accordance with Chapter 10 ( 37.2-1000 et seq.) of Title37.2 and (ii) that the person is unlikely to develop mentally to a sufficientdegree to make an informed judgment about sterilization in the foreseeablefuture;

5. The court, to the greatest extent possible, has elicited and taken intoaccount the views of the person concerning the sterilization, giving theviews of the person such weight in its decision as the court deemsappropriate;

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

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

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