LAW REFORM URGED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19698, 2 August 1938, Page 5

LAW REFORM URGED

SURGICAL OPERATIONS

SEQUEL TO COURT TRIAL

LONDON, July 22

There is much evidence that the acquittal of Mr. A. W. Bourne, an eminent surgeon, on a charge of having illegally used an instrument on a girl, will lead to a strong effort to amend the law.

It was argued on Mr. Bourne's behalf that the future health of the patient made the operation necessary.

The British Medical Association may take the lead. Many doctors regard the existing acts as too vague. Dame Louise Mcllroy, the wellknown obstetrician and gynaeological surgeon, says that she has never prevented the performing of such an operation where it was advisable. Mrs. Janet Chance, chairman of the Abortion Law Reform Society, declares that the case touches only the fringe of the problem, and that 90,000 women a year take the law into their own hands. The Times, in a leading article, endorses the acquittal of Mr. Bourne as a declaration of the law of common sense of which nearly all laymen will approve. It adds: "The law would have suffered had it been held that this operation should have been refused." The Daily Telegraph says: "The trial established that a doctor, acting in good faith, can operate if he thinks it necessary, in the widest sense, to preserve the mother's life." A special correspondent of the Daily Mail states that, in consequence of Mr. Bourne's acquittal, a large section of the medical profession is demanding an immediate amendment of the law regarding illegal operations. The Government, he says, will be asked to introduce legislation preventing a reputable surgeon being charged with an offence as the result of an action which many doctors and a vast section of public opinion consider to be correct.