Editing Compulsory sterilization (section)

=== Nigeria ===
Laws in Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania involve references to medical operations where the intended benefit for the patient is not tied to any legal consequences for medical professionals involved. Specifically, the criminal Code of Nigeria States that: “Performing with good faith and with reasonable care and skill a surgical operation upon any person for his benefit, if the performance of the operation is reasonable, having regard to the patient’s state and to all the circumstances of the case.”<ref>Stephan, Jan; Kellogg, E. H. (1974). The world's laws concerning voluntary sterilization for family planning purposes. ''California Western International Law Journal, 5(1),'' 72-120.</ref>

In Nigeria, young girls with intellectual disabilities are susceptible to non consensual sterilization. No current laws explicitly prevent involuntary sterilization. And the laws that currently surround and may apply to the issue are not helpful in preventing it. The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights declared that involuntary sterilization violates the right to “equality and non-discrimination, dignity, liberty and security of the person.”<ref name=":33">{{Cite journal |last1=Jadhav |first1=Apoorva |last2=Vala-Haynes |first2=Emily |date=November 2018 |title=Informed Choice and Female Sterilization in South Asia and Latin America |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-biosocial-science/article/abs/informed-choice-and-female-sterilization-in-south-asia-and-latin-america/57FE74D4DBE8CA1849EFFE9F5FD73AB9 |journal=Journal of Biosocial Science |language=en |volume=50 |issue=6 |pages=823–839 |doi=10.1017/S0021932017000621 |pmid=29343307 |issn=0021-9320|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Involuntary sterilization in Nigeria is more common for girls with intellectual disabilities than for boys with intellectual disabilities and more common for those with intellectual disabilities specifically in comparison to other disabilities. Involuntary sterilization commonly occurs when relatives initiate it. In several studies involving parents of girls with disabilities who had initiated involuntary sterilization, respondents said that the primary reason for sterilization was to prevent pregnancy either for financial reasons or due to risk of offspring with intellectual disabilities. However, similar motivations for sterilization were not common for girls without intellectual disabilities. There is also a gendered element sterilization as the Nigeria law code penalizes emasculation, which makes it so that men cannot reproduce. There is no such penalization for sterilization of women.<ref name=":33" />