But we don't know that she will be physically restrained or sedated. If everyone around her behaves professionally with compassion and respect then there's no reason why she won't calmly walk in there herself and have the general anaesthetic and surgery just like you or I.
ITA with Lougle. I have an adult DD with LD, who does not have mental capacity. Her IQ is untestable per the last psychology report - psychologists can only say she does not meet the criteria for SLD, so she must be functioning at a MLD level. I would put her emotionally at about age 4. She can't get pregnant, because she is on Depo injections every 10 weeks for medical reasons.
She sees doctors regularly in a field, where LD goes with the territory. Even ones who have seen her every 3 months for years have failed to notice, she cannot understand a word they say beyond "Hello, how are you?" She came out of their appointments, complaining how bored she was. So, I would not place any reliance on what consultants or Independent Mental Health Advocates think about the comprehension of the woman in this case, unless a speech therapist was there to ensure communication was concrete enough for her comprehension.
DD has challenging behaviour and can be in a residential placement for years; the care staff will still ask our advice regularly on how to handle her in certain situations - such as she is refusing to take her meds. So, even people who work with her day in day out, do not fully understand what makes her tick; and they certainly do not understand the extent of her different LD.
DD does know what sex, pregnancy, childbirth and having a baby are; although she cannot imagine what they are actually like (although I couldn't until I'd been through it). She has wanted a baby since she was 18 and has asked every doctor she sees, if she can have one. If somebody told her there is say a 1 in a 1,000 risk to you in natural childbirth, whereas its 1 in 200 with a CS, mainly due to the anaesthetic, she would have no idea what that meant, beyond she could die.
She suffers considerable pain regularly (screaming her head off), and has probably had multiple x rays of most parts of the body, especially the skull. She does have GA's regularly for removal of fractured teeth, MRIs or to have a battery placed in her chest through an incision. I could get her to have a GA, just by saying:
"The man is going to put a needle in your hand. You are used to this. They do it in A & E all the time. You will go to sleep. You will feel no pain. You will wake up. "
I cannot imagine her in natural childbirth, but I would only see a CS under GA, as a step up from the surgery she has (which she does agree to; while we may have a best interests meeting, nobody would force her to do it).
However, if I told her it was to kill the baby in her tummy, she would be absolutely devastated. She has a history of emotional problems, including depression and the MH problems following a forced abortion would be enormous IMO, and her being held down and restrained could cause nightmares and PTSD for years, probably decades. She would lose all trust in us, and it would cause havoc in her relationship with us; and any care staff, who have to look after her in the future (and she is problematic as it is, but its mainly verbal aggression so far).