Japanese care home admits to sterilising mentally ill couples
‘Human dignity should be protected regardless of whether or not they have a disability’
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Your support makes all the difference.A group home in northern Japan has admitted to making sterilisation treatment a condition for mentally ill residents if they wished to get married or live together in the facility.
The home operated by Asunaro Social Welfare Service Corporation in Esashi, Hokkaido, has made sterilisation a requirement for mentally ill couples for more than 20 years, it said on Sunday.
At least 16 residents or eight couples agreed to the condition and underwent sterilisation over the period of two decades, the operators said. It told the residents that the home could not offer childcare facilities as it did not have any necessary experience.
Men had to undergo a vasectomy, while women were made to wear contraceptive rings.
In a violation of reproductive rights, those who refused the opt for sterilisation were asked to leave the facility and threatened with termination of their job assistance.
Hidetoshi Higuchi, who heads the corporation, told Kyodo News: "Who will take responsibility when they become unable to raise children? We cannot guarantee the life of a newborn."
He added that no residents left the group home because of the sterilisation requirement.
Japan's ministry of health, labour and welfare said they are looking into the claims. "Human dignity should be protected regardless of whether or not they have a disability," an official said, adding that the treatment of the mentally ill was "inappropriate if true".
Japan has a history of forced sterilisation, where nearly 16,500 people were made to undergo treatment to prevent the birth of "poor-quality descendants" between 1948 and 1996.
In 2019, the Shinzo Abe government issued an apology and awarded compensation to people with disabilities who were forcibly sterilised under a now-defunct eugenics law.
Earlier this year, the nation went under a policy review by a UN committee that deals with the rights of people with disabilities.
In September, the panel asked Japan to address problems with how the nation treats people with disabilities, including prolonged institutionalisation of the mentally ill.
Japan ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2014 after it was adopted in 2006.
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