Dr RV Asokan, the Chief of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), has expressed that enacting a law to ban sex determination tests might prevent female foeticide, but it may not be an effective solution to stop female infanticide, which is a social issue and not a medical problem, reports PTI.
According to his interaction with PTI editors, Asokan said IMA is currently working on a document to overhaul the existing Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC-PNDT) Act. This act prohibits the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques for determining the sex of the fetus and holds doctors responsible for any violation.
“And one suggestion would be why not detect the sex of the foetus and then protect the girl child," he said.
"For a social evil you cannot have a medical solution. Is it workable or practical? Let us discuss that. What will happen is that if you don't correct the social evil, female foeticide will disappear, female infanticide will happen," he explained.
In Asokan's view, the PC-PNDT Act is completely warped, short sighted and NGO-driven.
"We have a stake in preventing female foeticide but we don't agree with the methodology PC-PNDT Act has taken. The methodology has caused so much difficulty for doctors," Asokan, who is IMA's National President, said.
"If there is one law we want to be taken out of the statute that is PC-PNDT. It doesn't deserve its place," he said.
The doctors' body has been demanding re-envisioning of the PC-PNDT Act for quite some time.
According to Asokan, there are no differences of opinion on saving the girl child. "The common objective is one...presuming all the doctors to be culpable and anti-life is very wrong," he stressed.
The IMA, Asokan added, is aggrieved over certain rules in the act and the penalties imposed on doctors for technical mistakes and incorrect filling of forms. He further stated that the regulations concerning this matter are unjust. According to him, one of the regulations stipulates that machines cannot be moved from one room to another, which is quite unreasonable, states PTI.
“Moreover, not filling up ‘Form F' is considered to be equal to female foeticide,” he elaborated.
Form F, under the PC-PNDT Act, records the medical history of a pregnant woman and why the ultrasound is being done.
Under the present law, doctors not filling up Form F properly are given the same punishment as someone who does a sex determination test.
"An institution like the Honourable Supreme Court has said if you do not fill up Form F you are committing female foeticide. How is this acceptable?" he asked.
The IMA chief cited an instance from Coimbatore 15 days ago, when a gynaecologist was convicted and sentenced to three years for not filling up Form F properly.
