Japan care home admits requiring mentally disabled couples be sterilised
- Residents with intellectual disabilities were required to undergo sterilisation if they wanted to get married or live with a partner
- The head of the corporation that runs the facility said it was unable to ‘take responsibility’ for children or ‘guarantee the life of newborns’
The facility operated by Asunaro Social Welfare Service Corporation in Esashi, Hokkaido, has made sterilisation a condition for mentally disabled couples who want to live together for more than 20 years.
The facility said that eight such couples had agreed to the treatment, in which men had to undergo a vasectomy and women had to wear a contraceptive ring.
Those who refused the treatment were asked to leave the facility, and job assistance was terminated, which could constitute a violation of reproductive rights or the right to decide whether to bear and raise children.
“Who will take responsibility when they become unable to raise children? We cannot guarantee the life of newborns,” Hidetoshi Higuchi, who heads the corporation, told reporters on Sunday.
An official at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said, “Human dignity should be protected regardless of whether or not they have a disability,” adding that the facility’s treatment “is inappropriate if it is true.”