Renuka calls on awareness campaign to stop female foeticide

We will transport ourselves to a familiar scene, which is unfolding in most of the hospitals/polyclinics/nursing homes of respected doctors all over the world. The plot here is age-old and there are actors in this tragic human drama, who have played this roles many times all over the world, except for the faces of actors, which differ over a period of time and space as we travel in our journey of life, which will ultimately lead us to the end to go to the place and way of all living flesh, ever since human beings began to inhabit this earth!


These hospitals have doctors in their employ and he has placed his role many times over. At the other end of his table sits a beautiful woman. For her, this is a new experience. She is clearly nervous. Her hands hold a costly handbag, which she keeps snapping jerkily open and closed. Her pretty face is flushed?


As far as the doctor is concerned, she is telegraphing her condition plainly to him. She is so nervous that she might as well be shouting it from the rooftops.


Nonetheless, the doctor has a job to do. He asks her in a friendly voice to calm down, and concerned as ever, he brings for her a jug of cold water and a glass. The woman gives the doctor a grateful look for that was needed to calm her down and pour her tale of woes to the genial, friendly, bespectacled man sitting on the doctor?s chair looking eager, considerate, caring, hospitable, and an understanding man who can relate to the trauma and anguish, which she is passing through at the particular moment.



Finally, it is the turn of the doctor to break the silence. He asks her is a friendly manner: ?And, just what is the exact nature of the trouble, which a pretty lady like you should not be passing through??


The doctor who has handled innumerable cases, which are similar to her plight with a jerk of his head, asks the nurse to leave them alone for a few minutes. The nurse is familiar to her job makes a hasty exit from the door.


The reassuring voice of the doctor soon calms her fears: ?It is generally a rule for a nurse to be present when a woman is consulting a doctor,? he says in a gentle voice to calm her fears. And, it is a very good rule for he can easily recall accurately the number of times, which doctors had fell victims to compromising situations ? and had their license to practice snatched ? for not taking this adequate precaution.



Now, the woman facing him is more composed than ever. In a faltering voice, she explains to the doctor: ?But you see this is so personal.?


?I see,? the doctor says - speaking as soothingly as before ??you can speak freely now. You will not be overheard and the confidentiality of a doctor-patient relationship will come to your aid even in a court of law. We are under oath not to divulge to others what the patient tells to her doctor.?


For a few seconds, the doctor is distracted by the patient who has come to consult him. He compares her to his ugly hag ? the wife ? back home, and in the back of him mind wanders to the delights of taking her to a dinner to a quiet restaurant near the hospital and from there?He quickly pushes those dangerous thoughts away from his mind. The medical ethics committee had destroyed the careers of many brilliant doctors who had once entertained these thoughts by seizing away their license to practice, and had doomed their professions for all time to come.



The lady starts: ?Doctor, I?.? She stops midway her face flushed unable to go on.


Suddenly the doctor before her asks gently: ?How many periods have you missed??


She looks startled: ?Does it show so plainly?? she asks him, and in a miserable tone confides? ?Two.?


?Well now!? The doctor tells her heartily smiling at her. That means nothing. There are a number of reasons why a woman misses her periods besides pregnancy. A complete examination will reveal that you are worrying over nothing!?


?No doctor,? she says quietly. ?I am a mother of two children. I am familiar with all the symptoms of pregnancy, except for one thing. I am a married woman.?


The doctor is somewhat startled by her honest reply. He says: ?This man...can he??


?No doctor. He has a wife whom he cannot get rid off as much as he would like to,? her tone again becomes miserable, ?I am in this alone. I knew the odds stacked against me when I started having an affair with him.?


?I see,? says the doctor somewhat lamely.


She starts pouring out her heart to him. ?You see doctor,? she says: ?this would mean disgrace, which might result in loosing custody over my children. Moreover, I am a working woman with a lot of commitments. I cannot face the ordeal and the shame, if my family comes to know about it.?


Suddenly, the doctor becomes brisk and businesslike. ?Perhaps,? he says to her, ?we should proceed with the examination.


Without waiting for her reply, he rings in the nurse. ?Please prepare the patient for the examination.?


The nurse knows what she has to do and she does it with a clinical thoroughness.

Meanwhile, the woman lying prone on the table turns to the Almighty God in her hour of distress.


?Dear God,? she prays ??please make it a false pregnancy! I promise that I will never, never do such things in my life again!?


Soon, the examination is over, she gets dressed and sits on the chair again facing the doctor across the desk,


?Doctor,? her voice stutters fearing the worst.


The doctor says: ?Well, you know how things are,? he is now at his professional best. ?It is impossible to say things for sure, for it will require a thorough testing and the only positive way is to hear the heartbeat of the child.?


The woman across the table is now dumb with horror. She is not aware of the latest ultrasound techniques that tells her about the pregnancy at the first instance, and does not bother to keep, which will inform her about the latest advances in the field of obstetrics and gynecology.


In a dull voice, her body totally numb, she says: ?By that time, it shall be too late! Is there someway by which this thing can be removed??


The doctor tells her sternly: ?This is a very dangerous thing. In the sight of the law of the land, it is equivalent to murder.?


?But, there are so many women who have done it. I read in a magazine that it is estimated that there are two million abortions every year. To be entirely honest with you, I am in trouble doctor and I need your help!?


Suddenly the dam of emotions, which she had kept in check until now starts tumbling over. She starts sobbing uncontrollably.


The doctor in him has seen far too many cases like these to get emotionally involved with the woman sitting in front of him crying her heart out.


?I do not touch such operations, which will put me in the wrong side of the law,? he says suddenly and explosively.

The woman lifted her tear-stained eyes and the doctor could see she was in a state of deep shock and felt instantly sorry for her.


?If you are determined to go through this operation, I can suggest to you the name of the doctor who will perform it for you. He is skilled at these sorts of operations. In the hands of a wrong man there could be complications and infection could set in.?

?But, is this man reliable doctor?? The woman was looking more afraid than before.

The doctor looks at her astonished! Did she not know the risks involved when she was carrying an affair with a married man? Did she not know that the current laws of the country consider a woman who has aborted herself as a criminal and a murderer?


?I do not usually recommend abortion to my patients,? the doctor says: however, if things get out of hand and infection sets in; then I will personally treat you for it."

The woman before him succumbs to the doctor?s suggestion. She gets an abortion discretely performed, and later got her swiftly treated at the first sign of infection with the help of antibiotics, which cleared up the complications in her case.



The entire drama was written to illustrate three important points, where abortion is legalized in some countries and it is not considered a crime. But, in those countries, where it has been legislated as a crime; it is still carried out with a great air of secrecy by unethical doctors who charge a hefty fee to remove all signs of pregnancy, which may taint the name of a woman in her family, and in the society. Many of the abortionists are quacks who are not well-versed with handling such cases, but they do it in careless disregard of the law in undisclosed location and rigged up hospital beds and equipment, which are constantly on the move shifting to other rented houses, before the law gets wise to the doctor involved in this horrible crime. The most surprising fact of all is that it illustrates the way the medical profession disagrees with the legal system of a country of which they are a part. Apart from that they get a hefty cut out of the fees charged by the abortionist to carry out this horrendous crime and this is the most serious social evil, which is plaguing many parts of the world. The crimes have been debated heatedly in the parliament, press and the law. Nonetheless, at the end of those debated everyone remains confused as before with the million dollar question hanging before them, which puts them in the same dilemma of the Shakespearean drama, ?To be or not to be.?


A surprising number of doctors are not averse when it comes to suggesting abortion. Some of the highly respectable professional doctors do it in secret in special cases ? for friends, relatives and well-connected families who enjoy a powerful clout in our societies, especially if the advanced techniques reveal that the girl is carrying a fetus of a female in her body! Female infanticide is the most horrible crime faced by the world today, which has altered the male and female ratios all over the world drastically. So, if a man wants to get respectably married, he has to travel ? according to an age old proverb ? to faraway lands in search of a bride and a fortune!


But, again the lawmakers of the land, have left enough legal loopholes for any doctor caught at carrying out this crime. He has in his professional judgment has decided that the abortion was a ?therapeutic abortion,? to get rid of a deformed child ? that is permissible under the law ? and he did it in order ? in some cases - to save the patient?s life, as she was medically unfit to bear the ordeal of the pregnancy. Some of the private hospitals are run exclusively for upper class establishments ? that are abortion mills ? and remain hospitals only in name!



The rich and the affluent class easily get away with the act. Some of them travel to other countries where the law allows it and views it as completely legal act, netting the countries a huge profit, for the abortionist and taxes paid to the government in lieu of the abortion, which is carried out! In this way, everyone is kept happy and there is no room for complaints from any quarters. And, this mindset of a casual approach to a social evil has become an accepted norm in the modern society, in the present day and age. The good side of abortion in highly competent hands can be performed without a single death.


But, there is another side to this rotten, corrupt and foul act, which exists only for the purpose of extorting money from frightened women who lack the means or the contacts to get constant medical help. They are usually performed by doctor?s who have lost their license to practice after getting caught by the law, while carrying out an illegal act. In most cases, these crimes exist of public apathy in societies, which condone consensual sex between two adults is not a crime and the results of this act should be borne by people who indulge in it. Then, there are those career-minded married women who are well entrenched in the top levels of an organization?s hierarchies, where pregnancies are not viewed kindly by their employers.


In brief, the community should be sensitive to these sorts crimes, which happen in their midst and be forever vigilant to fight against those two million unborn babies who are murdered every year. But there are hardly any anti-abortionists groups, which have taken their battle to the other camp or have the power to legislate a tough antiabortion law that will act as an effective deterrent. Why? It is because they may secretly need the help of the abortionist one day, when a push comes to shove.