Differing views held on beginning of life

Press, 23 May 1977, Page 2

Differing views held on beginning of life

The New Zealand Family Planning Association, in what it called its most basic statement from its conference at the week-end, decided that life begins at fertilisation, thus differing from the finding of the Royal Commission on contraception, sterilisation, and abortion. The association draws no distinctions between the methods of fertility control before and after implantation.

The Royal Commission has said in its recommendations that life begins at implantation (about nine days after fertilisation), and that removing the fertilised ovum before that time is acceptable. However, it found that removal of the implanted egg violated life, so that menstrual regulation and the use of vaccines, were unacceptable. The chairman of the association’s medical advisory committee (Dr Olga Batt) said that the Commission had made an arbitrary and unscientific judgment about the beginnings of life that made some "abortifacients” legal and others illegal. The conference of about 100 delegates recommended the permissible use of menstrual regulation (extraction of the contents of the uterus by suction after implantation), and research into the methrod to improve it. It was “gravely concerned” that victims of rape were offered only the morningafter pill, or the intra-uterine device, as a means of terminating pregnancy. For the first time, the association made a policy announcement that the interests

[of the mother outweighed those of the child in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. It therefore supported the principle that termination of pregnancy by a registered medical practitioner should not be a legal offence. “Until this conference, the association had no policy on the issue,” Dr Batt said. “We are intrinsically supporters of abortion only "as a backstop to contraceptive failure. This is a major change in policy; much more permissive and liberal.”

The policy change was not supported unanimously; all othe remits were. The meeting sought the complete repeal of the Police Offences Act, section 2, relating to the use of contraceptives, not merely its amendment. If the section were simply amended, restrictive elements of the commission’s recommendations could still be implemented. Dr Batt said. These were that sex education courses in schools would have to- be approved by headmasters, the Department of Education and the Department of Health, and that there would be no means of running courses for people over 15 who had left school. The conference endorsed most of the Royal Commission’s recommendations on sex education, but asked that instructors be “suit' ably” qualified, not “highly” qualified. It recommended that vending machines selling condoms should also dispense contraceptive spermicides,

that condoms be more easily

[available, and male responsibility emphasised. [ It wanted prescription requirements relaxed so that [ "adequately trained” nurses [ could administer hormonal contraceptives, mainly the pill and the injection, from mobile family-planning clinics, and be given responsibility for family-planning care. It wanted suitable counselling services given anyone having difficulty in "their sexual relationship, and welcomed the commission’s recommendation that free contraceptives be supplied in cases of financial hardship but without the. cumbersome procedure of seeking approval fro'm the Department of Health. It strongly opposed establishment of a statutory committee to oversee the working of the abortion laws, believing that this was the proper function of the Department of Health. It also reacted to the proposed panel system to examine the justification for each abortion. It said it would fragment patient care, and lessen individual professional responsibility. The conference was unhappy that reasons for abortions had to be included in [news media publication of panel decisions. AU doctors at the conference had made referrals to the Auckland Medical Aid Centre. They acknowledged that it provided a high-qual-ity service, and sought extension of similar services to other centres. The full conference endorsed their statement.