PROPOSED HEALTH BILL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10897, 11 May 1921, Page 5

PROPOSED HEALTH BILL

A VERY CANDID CRITIC CONDEMNATION OF “ARREST ON SUSPICION*’ CLAUSE. STRONG MORAL BASIS WANTED. Strong exception was taken to certain clauses contained in the proposed Health Bill by Mrs A. R. Atkinson, when speaking on the subject to members of the Women’s National Council last evening, with reference to the valuable information regarding the bill which had been gathered by Lady Stout and issued in pamphlet form to the members of the council. The proposed bill, said Mrs Atkinson, contained a clause which said that any person could inform the authorities that a person was suffering from venereal disease. This was practically an “arrest on suspicion.’’ In previous cases this had been done, and innocent people, including young women, had been arrested on lying testimony. This state of affairs was . not to be tolerlited. Another matter which the speaker wished to refer to was the question of whether the doctor should give the name of any person who discontinued treatment. This, it was held, was not right. The confidence which existed between doctor and patient was much the same as the minister of religion and his penitent. What actually, was wanted was “a Gtrong and moral basis” and purity of thought. There should be a method of free clinics without the “arrest on suspicion” tactics. Surely it was worth trying. It was gratifying to learn from the last report that no patients had discontinued their course of treatment. The establishment of clinics; had not in the past been successful for women. In Australia forty cases had been subjected to the “arrest on suspicion' 1 method, and all of these (women) had remained under treatment. One man, however, had left treatment by running away. One thing she felt sure of was that if young people of both sexes developed purity of thought, they would find that it was infinitely superior to anything else, • and would tend- to make better husbands and wives of them.