Gender Selective Abortions

The Daily Telegraph revealed over the weekend that some doctors have routinely been flouting the law on abortion and offering terminations based on the sex of the child. One recording shows a woman giving her baby's gender as a reason for wanting the termination followed by the consulting doctor deliberately falsifying records. Some of the individuals involved also hold influential teching posts and are heavily involved with training doctors of the future.

Firstly, it is sad that even today people wish to terminate pregnancies based on gender. Everybody who has kids or indeed wants them has a utopian dream of their ideal family. However as my biology teachers at school drilled into me, "Fertilisation is a random process involving an element of chance." The plan rarely goes off smoothly. That said, those people I know with kids that didn't comply with what they had planned universally admit they wouldn't change them for the world. I'm not making a case against abortion, I think it's a valuable procedure which has saved many lives of horrendous suffering. However I believe it should be used sparingly and not as a means simply of being a bit more choosy about your kids.

What's more worrying still is the level of arrogance displayed by the doctors involved. They clearly think their opinion and decisions are above the law. Sadly, this attitude doesn't particularly surprise me. There is a latent level of arrogance in a lot of doctors I have encountered that their opinion is somehow universally correct by virtue of their job. To some it up in a handy soundbit, "I know best because I'm a doctor". This isn't limited to medical matters (although I've seen patient's wishes casually mocked and belittled because they disagree with medical opinion) but extends into other areas of life too.

This worries me. It shows a lack of respect not only for the law but for humanity generally that they feel their opinion is somehow more important than a set of standards set out by society. Unfortunately, there is a 'them and us' mentality displayed by a lot of doctors exemplified by the phrase, "They don't know what it's like to do the job". Perhaps not but that doesn't give them carte blanche to act as they please.

I once heard a medical student describe being a doctor as, "a knowledge" rather than a job. Perhaps it is but if so, so is every other profession. It still betrays the belief that they are somehow deserving of special treatment by society. Sorry to burst the bubble here but no; it is a job done by humans who are equally as fallible as anyone else.

That is not to say I think every doctor is a sociopathic egotists riding a wave of their own self-importance. There are many brilliant doctors out there. They all share similar traits; humility in excess, an understanding that patients are people and the keen awareness that they are there for the patient's benefit and that alone.

I hope not just the book but the whole library gets thrown at the individuals who have been carrying out sex selection abortions. They deserve nothing less given the horrific way they have violated social and moral ideals we as a society hold dear. Hopefully some severe sentencing and public embarrassment will make others think twice before playing god.

JR