PUBLICATION RECEIVED

Evening Star, Issue 22633, 27 April 1937, Page 16

PUBLICATION RECEIVED

'GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY* 1 Gentlemen of the Jury,’ by Dr Doris Gordon and Dr F. O. Bennett, is a book dealing with the practice of abortion in New Zealand. It comes appropriately at the moment following so soon after the publication of the alarming report of the Government committee of inquiry which considered the matter. In this publication the problem is discussed from every angle. The book is from the pen of highlyqualified doctors, who have made a close study of the subject. They stress the point that “ this evil has reached a stage when it must be openly, studied by every intelligent man and. woman in the Dominion, and some public finding for or against this menace must be reached as a guide to legal, medical, and state authority.” The opinions expressed are emphatic, as they ought to be when the vital nature of the questions involved are considered, but it is a carefully-worded and well-reasoned treatise on a social development that threatens the very foundation of the State. As the medical authors state, “ experience of human nature warns_us that if we once started terminating pregnancies for every trivial whim or reason presented we would soon be terminating civilisation.” The _ legal aspect and the reluctance of juries to fonvict in certain cases are trenchantly dealt with, the difficulties of the medical profession are explained, and the social and economic issues discussed. In concluding their book the authors say; “Before anything can be done at all the truth must be known. New Zealand needs education, not expedients, a communal resolve to tnink clearly and act fearlessly in facing this evil. Above all, it needs a capacity for self-discipline, without which no democracy can hope to survive.” It is to he hoped that the grave warning contained in this small book will not fall on deaf ears. The views of the authors, backed as they are by facts, should not be disregarded, for they are of the deepest concern to the Dominion. The publishers of ‘ Gentlemen of the Jury,’ are Messrs Thomas Avery and Sons, New Plymouth.