Part 7 (1/2)

As to the suggested safeguarding regulations, there is by no means general agreement in the medical profession concerning their advisability or their value.

The Committee, having investigated the matter very fully, is satisfied that any disability under which the doctor rests in terminating a pregnancy for genuine, accepted therapeutic reasons is only theoretical.

No actual instance was brought before the Committee in which a doctor had been penalized or even subject to question when acting in good faith, nor was any evidence presented to show that any patient had suffered by reason of a doctor refraining from operating through fear of possible legal consequences.

Both medical and legal witnesses competent to speak on these medico-legal aspects were definite in their a.s.surance that, under the existing law, no doctor acting in accordance with the accepted standards of the profession was in any danger.

The only person who need have any fear was one who ignored guidance of the existing standards of his profession, and to this extent the law was, at least in part, a deterrent against laxity of practice.

The Committee considers that, as it stands, the law has shown itself adaptable in practice to all reasonable changes in medical thought.

Further, the Committee was impressed by the possible dangers which might be a.s.sociated with any alteration in the existing law.

While it is undoubtedly true that the majority of doctors are straightforward and honest in their interpretation of the indications for therapeutic abortion, it was made clear that even at the present time there are some who are inclined to terminate pregnancy for reasons which would not be accepted by most.

It would be quite impossible to lay down a hard-and-fast list of indications.

There are definite grounds for fearing that any alteration in the law would lead, in certain quarters, to a widening of the interpretations far beyond the intention of the alteration.

Under any alteration it would be exceedingly difficult to control the merging of the therapeutic into the social and economic reasons.

For these reasons, then, the Committee is not prepared to suggest any alteration in the law regarding therapeutic abortion; the Committee believes, however, that some benefit might accrue from the compulsory notification of all abortions to the Medical Officer of Health.

_Abortion for Social and Economic Reasons._--Having received certain representations in favour of this practice, and having examined a large ma.s.s of evidence on this subject, the Committee is utterly opposed to any consideration of the legalization of abortion for social and economic reasons.

The Committee does not hesitate to state its first objection on moral grounds.

That the deliberate destruction of embryo human lives should be allowed for all the varying and indeterminate reasons suggested by different advocates would lead the way to intolerable license.

We would draw your attention and that of the public to the extreme views which are held by some of the most active advocates of legalized abortion.

In its most blatant form this advocacy is based on the argument of woman's right to determine for herself whether a pregnancy shall continue or not.

”The right to abortion should be taken quite away from legal technicality and legal controversy. Up to the viability of her child it is as much a woman's right as the removal of a dangerously diseased appendix.”

This is the view of Miss Stella Browne in her essay on ”The Right to Abortion”[2] and of others who hold similar opinions.

[2] ”Abortion Spontaneous and Induced.” Taussig.

Is any comment necessary?

The representative of one of the largest women's organizations in New Zealand who gave evidence before the Committee advocated the introduction of legislation permitting abortion under certain circ.u.mstances after a woman had had two children, subsequently qualifying the suggestion by the words ”if contraceptives fail.”

In the case of such ill-considered opinions, the Committee believes that it would be impossible to limit the practice if the law were in any way relaxed.

Of course there are others who confine their advocacy of legalized abortion to cases in which there are elements of real tragedy and which appeal to public sympathy, but, granting that there are many cases in which social and economic conditions create situations of great hards.h.i.+p, nevertheless the Committee is fairly convinced that abortion is not justifiable; the remedies lie in the removal of the causes and the alleviation of these difficult situations by social legislation and other measures, and in the education of the public conscience.

The Committee is also opposed to the legalization of abortion for social reasons on account of the very considerable risks to health which are a.s.sociated with the practice.

Medical witnesses were agreed that, while the immediate risk to life in surgically performed termination of pregnancy was slight, there were very definite possibilities of more remote disabilities, and that such sequelae occurred in a considerable proportion of cases.