By IANS,
London: A brain-damaged woman has the capacity to take a decision about having sex, an appeal court in Britain has ruled despite her family insisting otherwise.
The woman, in her 40s, has been at the centre of litigation in the Court of Protection over whether she has the mental capacity to make decisions about having sexual relations, Daily Mail reported.
In their verdict, the judges of the Court of Appeal also concluded that courts could make general evaluations about disabled people’s capacity to take decisions about sex.
It would be impossible for a court, the judges said, to conduct an assessment every time a disabled person, whose capacity to consent to sex was questionable, showed an interest in having a sexual encounter.
The Court of Appeal upheld a ruling by a high court judge sitting in the Court of Protection, following a challenge by the woman’s mother.
The woman had the capacity to make decisions about sex, Justice Peter Jackson ruled, adding that the woman had been sexually active before suffering a brain injury, understood the “rudiments of the sexual act and had a basic understanding of contraception and sexually-transmitted diseases” risks.
Judges said the woman suffered a brain injury during surgery more than three years ago.