Understanding, not wisdom, needed for capacity

EDITOR-Benn and Lupton describe an interesting question in comparative morality in their article on the sterilisation of young, competent, and childless adults. 1 However, by asking whether the patient has considered her present and future interests in such detail they risk minimising the safeguards enshrined in statute. 2 The Capacity Act 2005 reiterates the words of Lord Justice Dame Butler-Sloss-that patients must show "understanding but not wisdom."