 In Poland, reproductive sterilisation of men or women has been defined as a criminal act since 1997 and remains so , under Article 156 §1, which also covers making someone blind, deaf or mute, of the 1997 law.The original 1997 law punished contraventions with a prison sentence of one to ten years and the updated law sets a prison sentence of at least 3 years.The prison sentence is a maximum of three years if the sterilisation is involuntary, under Art.