Pregnancy in a severely mentally handicapped adult

What happens when we discover that a severely mentally handicapped girl, resident under our care, is heavily pregnant? What options are open to us in her management? What are the legal and ethical issues involved? How do we ensure that she receives the best possible care and protection and will the involvement of the police actually make the situation worse? Few of us have had the experience of working through such dilemmas, and little help can be found in consulting 'experts' who are awaiting the result of 'test cases' in the High Courts. This article highlights some of the problems we encountered with such a case.