Abstract
Failure to consummate, if due to impotence or wilful refusal, is a ground for having the Marriage annulled. In the case of impotence the inability must have existed at the time of the marriage and must have persisted up to the date of the hearing of the petition. Sterility by itself is not a ground for nullity. Wilful refusal was first made a ground for nullity by the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1937. The refusal must be a definite decision arrived at without reasonable excuse, but a husband is not entitled to say that his wife is guilty until he has taken without success such steps as a reasonable husband would take in the circumstances. There is no wilful refusal where the petitioner acquiesces in the respondent's failure to consummate.
In this article the authors examine certain aspects of the law on this subject and the nature of the cases which come before doctors and lawyers.
Margaret Puxon, author of The Family and the Law (Penguin Books, 1963), is qualified as both a doctor and a barrister and has practised in both professions. Dr. Dawkins is a Medical Officer at the Islington Family Planning Association Clinic, and Clinical Assistant at the Obstetric Hospital, University College Hospital. She has experience in this field extending over 20 years.
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