Appeal court refuses mother's request for hysterectomy.(News)

The Court of Appeal in London last week overturned a High Court ruling giving the go-ahead for a hysterectomy to be performed on a 29 year old woman with severe learning disabilities. Her mother had sought court sanction for the operation to stop her daughter's periods and prevent her from getting pregnant.

Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, president of the High Court's family division, said that High Court judge Mr Justice Wall had erred in holding that both treatments under consideration (a laparoscopic subtotal hysterectomy or the insertion of a Mirena coil) were lawful and that the woman's mother could choose whichever she preferred.

Dame Elizabeth said: "The …