Karnataka Medical Council (KMC) has decided to delete doctors' names from its register and disqualify them from practising, if they indulge in the practice of sex determination of the foetus. In Karnataka, there are over one lakh diagnostic centres in the private sector and Bangalore alone has 20,000 such units.
The KMC's warning to all doctors follows a direction from the Medical Council of India in this regard. Doctors from hospitals and clinics in Bangalore have welcomed the directive. According to Dr. Malakaraddy, minister for medical education, government of Karnataka, the female foeticide is high in the backward districts of the State like Raichur, Gulbarga and Bidar and not that serious in the organised clinics in Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore. The number of sex determination tests conducted in a month by the diagnostic centres located in these three districts alone is 300 on an average.
"The rate of sex tests is high in some districts in Karnataka, but not comparable to the northern states in the country. Efforts are made by the State health and family welfare department to conduct surprise checks and take action against such doctors in the backward districts," said Sanjay Kaul, secretary Karnataka Health and Family Welfare department.
According to an official note sent by the M Sachdeva, secretary MCI, the code of medical ethics will henceforth contain a provision that on no account will sex determination be undertaken to terminate female foetus development in the womb. Such terminations are allowed only if there are absolute indications for termination of pregnancy as specified in the Medical Termination Pregnancy Act.
"Any act of terminating pregnancy of the normal female foetus amounting to female foeticide will be regarded as professional misconduct on the part of the physician leading to the penal erasure besides rendering him liable to criminal proceedings of law," stated Kaul.
The Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques [Regulation] and Prevention of Misuse Act was enacted in 1994 and enforced with effect from June 1, 1996. This Act sought to prevent the disclosure of the sex of a foetus using prenatal diagnostic techniques. Under the Act, no genetic counselling centre or laboratory or clinic is allowed to use pre-natal diagnostic technique including ultrasonography to determine the sex of the foetus.
Further, the Act also prohibits any advertisement relating to prenatal determination of sex. Anybody flouting the provisions of the Act is liable to punishment with imprisonment of up to five years with fine. A Central Supervisory Board under the chairmanship of the Union minister for health and family welfare is functioning for the implantations of the Act.
On the subject, the Supreme Court too on May 4 this year had directed the Union Government and the State government to ensure the implementation of the Act.