Carolina retains her right to fertility by exercising her legal capacity

Carolina Banze, is a 37 years old lady who is schizophrenic. She lives in the neighborhood of Mahotas, Maputo City. Born in Maputo, Carolina Banze is married to Fenias Jaime Malhaule since 2003, also a mental health user. In 2008, Carolina got pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl. Immediately after birth she lifted the infant and attempted to kill her by throwing her into a flashing toilet within the ward. Another patient saw this and saved the baby. Carolina was immediately transferred to a psychiatry hospital.

At the psychiatry hospital, a female doctor approached her and asked her to be sterilized because it was not appropriate for Carolina to have children. Carolina says, “I refused saying that I needed children in future”. The sterilization procedure was not carried out. The child was taken by the State and is not at school. Carolina and the husband visit the girl regularly. She lives with a ‘god mother’ because Carolina refused to have her child adopted. She says,, “In future I will live with my child”.

This is a true reflection of the exercise of the right to legal capacity. The doctor allowed for free consent despite Carolina’s condition of being a mental health user. She also exercised her rights further by not allowing anyone to adopt her child on the basis of her mental state. We thank Carolina for giving us permission to publish her story. She is a member of the Mental Health Users Association of Mozambique. She is quite eloquent and always carrying a smile. She says, “It is wrong to sterilise women with psycho-social disabilities. We need children too”.