7-minute vasectomies

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 8

7-minute vasectomies

NZPA-AFP Bangkok Thai surgeons performed hundreds of assembly-line vasectomies yesterday in an annual May Day sterilisation drive. Doctors said beforehand that they expected about 500 men to go through the seven minute snip-and-stitch operation.

The vasectomies were performed free in air-condi-tioned, tented operating theatres at Sanam Luang, Bangkok’s central fair-

ground. Dr Apichart Nirapathongporn, one of 16 surgeons who were operating, said that most of the patients were workers who had taken advantage of the day off from their jobs to have the surgery performed. The May Day vasectomy campaign is the brain-child of Mechai Viravaidya, whose promotional gags are widely credited with seducing his countrymen into one of the world’s most successful family planning pro-

grammes. Mr Mechai heads a private, non-profit organisation called the Population and Community Development Association. International experts have given the group high marks for helping to slash Thailand’s population growth rate from 3.3 per cent in 1970 to about 1.8 per cent now. Mr Mechai said that that had been the fastest decline in population growth in “the history of mankind.”