A WOMAN who fell pregnant shortly after her partner’s vasectomy has been awarded €35,000 in compensation in a landmark ruling by Spain’s Supreme Court.
Her partner has also been awarded the same amount, taking the couple’s total payout to €70,000 – plus legal interest.
The court ruled that the woman was entitled to damages because the couple had not been properly informed of the risks of the sterilisation procedure, which ultimately failed.
The case began after the man underwent a vasectomy at a public hospital in Madrid.
The operation initially appeared to be a success, offering the couple a permanent form of contraception.
But the vas deferens – the tubes that carry sperm – later reconnected spontaneously, causing the procedure to fail.
The woman then fell pregnant, prompting the couple to seek compensation over the lack of information they had received about the risks.
Health authorities acknowledged that the man had not been given adequate information before the procedure, leading to him being awarded compensation for the moral damage caused by the breach of his right to informed consent.
But his partner was initially denied a payout, with both health officials and Madrid’s High Court of Justice arguing that she did not have the legal standing to pursue her own claim.
The couple took their case to the Supreme Court, which has now overturned that decision and recognised that the woman suffered harm as a result of the botched procedure.
The court concluded that she suffered ‘her own, autonomous and individualised damage’, because the failure to explain the risks had undermined her ability to make decisions about her own body.
The landmark verdict establishes that the stable partner of a patient can seek their own compensation.
The court said that this did not mean partners share the patient’s right to informed consent – but that they can claim for the independent harm they suffer as a result.
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