After days of discussions on worthless matters of Indian politics, the people of India, for a change, discussed one serious issue. The issue divided Indians into two different and distinctive poles. The issue on discussion was the legal battle that two young couple from Mumbai fought for getting sanction to abort their 25-week-old foetus, as it was diagnosed with severe congenital cardiac problem. The Mumbai High Court denied the couple permission for abortion, as laws in India does not permit abortion after 20 weeks.
The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act specifies that an abortion after 20 weeks can take place only if the foetus presents any grave medical risk to the mother. Experts say that there are serious flaws with this abortion law in India, which was made in 1971. Since then much water has flown under the bridge and the medical science has achieved many a serious milestones in diagnosing the health condition of a foetus. Gynaecologists point out that some of the serious health hazard that a foetus may have can be diagnosed and ascertained only after the completion of 22nd week. So a law that doesn’t allow abortions after 20 weeks have serious imperfections. They also refer the laws followed in other countries like the United Kingdom, where abortions up to the 24th week are legal.
It is quite imperative to take into perspective the mental agonies and physical worries that parents of children having congenital physical or mental afflictions undergo. The scene of your beloved child suffering under despairing pain is not something any parents would want to see. When medical science has improved so much, it is the responsibility of the human beings to use it in such a way that it reduces the distress and anguish that the mankind would face. Isn’t it right that we use advancement in medical science to improve the lives of people? Do we want to bring disabled people to this churlish world when we can avoid that? This is certainly not an argument in favour of bringing only the so-called “perfect babies” to this world. Even after such great advancement in the field of technology there are areas where human beings become helpless in making everything perfect in this world. So even if one tries to make “perfect babies”, there would be the invisible hands of this nature at work that would thwart his or her attempts. But as far as possible we can use technology to stop the occurrences of disabled children. This is not because we want only “perfect babies”, but this is because we want to create a world where there is less misery and desolation, both for children and for grown ups.
Are there any laws in India that would see to it that all medical and social needs of a disabled child would be met? The answer is a very categorical no. The parents of the disabled children have to carry the whole financial and emotional burden of the disability. As long as state does not have the resources to provide such financial aids to such children, it does not have the moral authority to say no to the abortion of foetuses with abnormality.
One of the harshest comments on the couple Niketa and Haresh came from a section in the society who ridiculed them for going to the court with this issue. They commented that the couple is so merciless that they don’t want their disabled foetus because they don’t have the interest to bring up their child with serious cardiac issues. Such sorts of comments are suited only to a barbaric society with scant regard to the emotional state of a mother-to-be, faced with such a distressing ordeal. It is not because the couple has less interest to bring up the child that they went for the legal battle, but because they were worried about the quality of life that there child would get if born with serious congenital disorders. It is also quite sure that they would take care of their child when it is born, the same way any other parents would take care of their child.
The most obvious thing that came out of this legal battle is that there are some serious defects in the abortion law prevailing in our country, which needs serious amendments. There should be a law that would allow parents to abort foetuses with serious disabilities, as a baby with chronic diseases would reduce the quality of life of the baby and the parents. At the same time there should be efficient mechanisms in place to make sure that people are not abusing this law to abort unwanted foetuses based on the gender of the foetus. The authorities may constitute a panel, of doctors and jurists, who would be in charge of determining the legality of any abortion. So any requests made by parents-to-be for abortion of foetuses can be discussed in detail. The medical and legal aspects of every individual abortion requests should be discussed in this panel and based on their recommendations the request for abortion can be approved or rejected.
The courage showed by the young couple, Niketa and Haresh should be appreciated and so should be the hospitals that offered free medical treatments to the about-to-be born child. Let us hope that our politicians and legislature would take adequate interest in this issue and would make changes in the abortion law to make it more compassionate as well as more sensible, taking into account the improved technological aspects of our medical system.
