Richard is my boyfriend

Anna Taylor is 24 and has a learning disability. To her mother she is a child of ? ve who should be kept away from men. But hen she is rushed into hospital, it is revealed that she has suffered a miscarriage. She met Richard, the father of her baby, at her Day Care Centre. Richard has Downs Syndrome, and the care workers at the centre encouraged the relationship to develop. Following the miscarriage, Anna’s contraceptive options are severely limited and sterilisation would be the procedure of choice. Is Anna’s relationship with Richard pleasurable and valuable or abusive and illegal? Would sterilisation liberate her, or make her susceptible to further abuse? In court, the judge faces a stark choice: should Anna be sterilised, or kept away from men forever?