Virginia § 54.1-2975 Sterilization operations for certain children incapable of informed consent

Virginia Statutes

§ 54.1-2975 — Sterilization operations for certain children incapable of informed consent

Virginia § 54.1-2975

JurisdictionVirginia

Title 54.1PROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS

Subtitle IIIPROFESSIONS AND OCCUPATIONS REGULATED BY BOARDS WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PROFESSIONS

Ch. 29MEDICINE AND OTHER HEALING ARTS

Art. 7SEXUAL STERILIZATION

This text of Virginia § 54.1-2975 (Sterilization operations for certain children incapable of informed consent) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Va. Code Ann. § 54.1-2975 (2026).

Text

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'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's guardian, if any, the child's spouse, if any, and the child'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's interests; 3.

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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'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's guardian, if any, the child's spouse, if any, and the child'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'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's guardian, if any, to the child'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'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 § 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.