Minister exhorts medical fraternity to eradicate 'female foeticide'

Patna, Apr 5 (UNI) Bihar Health Minister Chandramohan Rai today exhorted the medical fraternity to cooperate for eradication of the malady of ''female foeticide'' from the society.

Inaugurating the ''Health Week Celebration'' here, Mr Rai said the malady of foeticide was a stigma on the society and if not checked in time, the problem would assume alarming proportion in the coming days.

Outlining the importance of role of the doctors in eradication of this social evil, he said the medical fraternity had responsibility to educate the masses about the ill effects of this menace.

Doctors should not only refuse to entertain any request from the relatives of the pregnant woman for the pre-natal sex determination but also educate them not to opt for such deliberate abortions, resulting in the death of female foetus, he added.

He said the people should also be made aware of the punishment stipulated in the law in the event of committing such offences.

The punishment would act as deterrent in checking the social menace, he said and added that he would personally favour death sentence for such crimes.

State secretary of the Indian Medical Association Dr Arun Kumar Thakur said the association would launch special drive to educate the dotcors about various aspects of the laws relating to prevention of the foeticide.

He said special camps would be organised in Patna and Darbhanga, where doctors would be educated to deal with request for pre-natal sex determination of the foetus from the relatives of the pregnant women.

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