Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan 15;20(2):1587.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021587.

The Right to Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Found a Family for People with Intellectual Disability: A Systematic Review

Patricia Pérez-Curiel  1 , Eva Vicente  1 , M Lucía Morán  2 , Laura E Gómez  3
Affiliations

The Right to Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Found a Family for People with Intellectual Disability: A Systematic Review

Patricia Pérez-Curiel et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Although sexuality, reproductive health, and starting a family are human rights that should be guaranteed for all citizens, they are still taboo issues for people with intellectual disability (ID), and even more so for women with ID. This paper systematically reviews the current qualitative and quantitative evidence on the rights of people with ID in regard to Articles 23 (right to home and family) and 25 (health, specifically sexual and reproductive health) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). A systematic review of the current literature, following PRISMA 2020, was carried out in ERIC, PsychInfo, Scopus, PubMed, ProQuest, and Web of Science. In all, 151 articles were included for review. The studies were categorized into six themes: attitudes, intimate relationships, sexual and reproductive health, sexuality and sex education, pregnancy, and parenthood. There are still many barriers that prevent people with ID from fully exercising their right to sexuality, reproductive health, and parenthood, most notably communicative and attitudinal barriers. These findings underline the need to continue advancing the rights of people with ID, relying on Schalock and Verdurgo's eight-dimensional quality of life model as the ideal conceptual framework for translating such abstract concepts into practice and policy.

Keywords: Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); fertility; intellectual disability; motherhood; parenthood; sex education; sexual health; sexual rights; sexuality.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. [(accessed on 31 October 2022)]. Available online: https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-right....
    1. Gómez L.E., Schalock R.L., Verdugo M.A. A new paradigm in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities: Characteristics and evaluation. Psicothema. 2021;33:28–35. - PubMed
    1. Gómez L.E., Schalock R.L., Verdugo M.A. A Quality of Life Supports Model: Six research-focused steps to evaluate the model and enhance research practices in the field of IDD. Res. Dev. Disabil. 2021;119:104112. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2021.104112. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Verdugo M.Á., Schalock R.L., Gómez L.E. The Quality of Life Supports Model: Twenty-five years of parallel paths have come together. Siglo Cero. 2021;52:9–28. doi: 10.14201/scero2021523928. - DOI
    1. World Health Organisation (WHO) Sexual Health, Human Rights and the Law. [(accessed on 31 October 2022)]. Available online: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/175556/9789241564984_en....

Publication types