A young wife was yesterday left devastated after a surgeon who clipped both of her fallopian tubes was found not guilty of poor professional performance at a fitness to practice inquiry at the Medical Council in Dublin.

An expert in reproductive medicine has described the judgement call a doctor under review faced when conducting the surgery in question. One must “hope you make the right decision”, the fitness-to-practise inquiry at the Medical Council heard yesterday.

The decision by a surgeon to ‘clip’ a woman’s fallopian tube without her consent has been described as “quite extraordinary” by a medical expert.