Trust Campaigning For Sterilisation

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31052, 6 May 1966, Page 2

Trust Campaigning For Sterilisation

(NZP.A. Reuter— Copyright) LONDON, May 5. A campaign encouraging voluntary sterilisation of either male or female as a means of family planning has been launched in Britain by the Simon Population Trust.

' A statement issued in London by the trust, which was set up in 1961 with a £15,000 bequest from the late Lord Simon of Wythenshaw, said sterilisation was both effective and convenient for family limitation.

In addition, it was especially suitable for parents who did not want any more children and for whom contraception had proved impracticable' or unreliable. The statement said the Simon trust aimed at making the advantages of the method more widely known, together with measures that would facilitate its use. Voluntary sterlisation was not illegal in Britain provided valid consents were obtained from applicant and spouse, and the operation was carried out in good faith. DOCTORS TO DECIDE .

Applicants for sterilisation approaching the trust would be referred to their family doctor, to whom the trust would send a “consent form” and guidance on procedure. “It is, of course, the prerogative of the family doctor to decide if there is a valid case for sterilisation,” the statement said. “If he does so decide, he will refer the applicant and spouse to a surgeon who will decide whether or not to operate.” The trust’s plans also provide for follow-up studies and the encouragement of research on methods of reversing the operation for sterilised people who wish to become fertile again. “There is increasing recognition (expressed, for example, in current controversy on abortion) that contraception is not the only acceptable method of family limitation,” said the trust. The importance of the method had been recognised in other countries, it said. In India more than 1,000,000 people had been sterilised. In the United States it was estimated that about 100,000 people were sterilised yearly and the method was used in Pakistan, Japan, Korea and China. SAFE OPERATION A paper supplied with the statement gave the answer to many of the popular questions on sterilisation. For a woman it was a safe, but major, abdominal operation, for a man a minor operation, sometimes performed under a local anaesthetic. It was not the same as castration and the pattern of

a man's sexual life remained unchanged. It would not make a woman less womanly, nor would it interfere with menstruation. Sterilisation was not necessarily permanent “Some surgeons, an increasing number, have performed a second operation to restore fertility in men, but its success cannot yet be counted on. The sterility is permanent in women.”

The paper gave three instances where sterilisation was to be recommended:

Where, according to competent medical opinion, there were physical, mental or emotional conditions which would make parenthood, or further parenthood, unwise or dan-

gerous. Where there was a reliable family history of a serious physical or mental abnormality which might be transmitted to chil-

dren. Where, in the genuine interests of the family, no more children were wanted, when the wellbeing of children already born would be adversely affected by further births.

The chairman of the trust, Dr. C. P. Blacker, said it was difficult to estimate the cost of the sterilisation operation on men but it might be between £2O and £25. Dr. Blacker said he and the trust had been bombarded with applications for the operation since they made known their plan six weeks ago.