                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

STERILIZATION OPERATIONS FOR CERTAIN CHILDREN INCAPABLE OF INFORMED CONSENT (§
54.1-2975)

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 fourteen years of age or older and less than eighteen
years of age when:

1. A petition has been filed in the circuit court of the county or city wherein
the child resides by the parent or parents having custody of the child or by the
child&#8217;s guardian, spouse, or next friend requesting that the operation be
performed;

2. The court has made the child a party defendant, served the child, the
child&#8217;s guardian, if any, the child&#8217;s spouse, if any, and the
child&#8217;s parent who has custody of the child with notice of the proceedings
and appointed for the child an attorney-at-law to represent and protect the
child&#8217;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 child upon whom the operation is to be
performed, to the child&#8217;s guardian, if any, to the child&#8217;s spouse,
if any, and, if there is no spouse, to the parent who has custody of the child;

4. The court has determined by clear and convincing evidence that the
child&#8217;s mental abilities are so impaired that the child is incapable of
making his or her own decision about sterilization and 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 child concerning the sterilization, giving the views of
the child such weight in its decision as the court deems appropriate;

6. The court has complied with the requirements of &#xA7; 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.

HISTORY: 1981, c. 454, § 54-325.10; 1988, c. 765.