A code of ethics for medical practitioners must be framed by the Medical Council of India (MCI) in consultation with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Indian Medical Association (IMA) to help in eradicating illegal sex determination tests. At a consensus reached at a meeting convened by the Campaign Against Sex Selective Abortion (CASSA), a non-government organization, to review the proposed amendments to the Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition and Regulation) (PNDT) Act and the implementing mechanism, it was felt that a code of ethics for medical practitioners would go a long way in inducing the medical practitioners to adopt a more reasonable posture to end discriminatory sex selection process.
The broad agenda of the meeting convened was to plug loopholes in the Act. It was the first meeting to review the proposed amendments to the Act, which was enacted into a law back in 1996.
It was proposed to make the legislation watertight against impending advancements in technology. One of the suggestions made was inclusion of making the documentation mandatory at abortion centers and by referral doctors. Records of medical termination of pregnancy (MTP) should be maintained with reasons specified, it was agreed upon at the meeting.
Another suggestion made was to incorporate the Supreme Court order to suppliers and manufacturers of scan equipments to make available details of sale of equipments into the Act. The state supervisory committee and the appropriate authority constituted under the Act should also have members, involved in the issue, to be made part of the committee, apart from the present structure of having just bureaucrats, it was desired at the meeting.
It also sought to make punishments more stringent since the present punishments under the Act were not tough to act as deterrent against erring medical practitioners.