A perspective on the PCPNDT Act

Abstract

Background: An important modern diagnostic tool, used for monitoring pregnancy and genetic defects; the ultrasound machine, has also become a selective killer of the female child. The male child preference in India was responsible for female infanticides in the past. With easy availability and accessibility of USG, a shift has occurred from infanticide to feticide, although female infanticides still continue. In the process doctors are blamed as "merchants of death". Peeved and pressed by national and internal agencies for the declining female child ratio (0-6 years), the Government of India reacted by enacting a stringent PC-PNDT Act almost solely aimed at doctors to prevent them from advertising and disclosing the sex of the fetus to the pregnant woman or her relatives. Since the enactment, hundreds of cases have been launched against the doctors. Aims: 1. In order to stand up to the law important sections and rules of the PC-PNDT Act have been analyzed for the benefit of our colleagues. 2. The Indian legal system rests the "burden of proof" on the prosecution. In two sections of The Act, these have been done away with. Instead, the accused doctor has to prove himself innocent. Therefore a demand has been made to make suitable amendments to The Act in this regard. 3. The inclusion of column numbers 9-19 in the form 'F' is not relevant for USG clinics/ imaging centers; inaccurate filling of which may attract a prison sentence of 3 years. This irrelevance has to be deleted. 4. Some suggestions.