The Radiologist Peered into his ultrasound scanner and beamed. "Congratulations, "he announced. "It's a girl." Rajendra Jain could feel his heart sink. Two daughters already and now another on the way. He glanced furtively

Counselling as commonly practised in Gujarat's Family Counselling Centres puts family at the centre of the counsellor's concerns. 'Family has to be saved' was the motto and so all efforts were directed towards that. In a dispute (i.e.

Recent publicity about unethical trials raises a number of questions about research in developing countries.

In a vast, multi-ethnic, multi-religious country like India, it is to be expected that we have several world-views operating at the same time in people's search for health and healing.

Persons testing positive for infection by HIV or showing evidence of AIDS provoke revulsion and fear in medical doctors. These reactions stem from the general knowledge that the diagnosis of AIDS is akin to a death sentence and the belief that a positive HIV test is, inevitably.

Doctors in India are questioning the ethics of a study which observed the natural course of precancerous uterine cervical lesions without treatment in women who had not given written consent to take part.

Modern medical practice is by its very nature an interventionist one and in principle, all medical interventions need the informed consent of the patient to be ethically correct.

There is a widespread feeling that there has been a general erosion of ethical standards even in professions, which have been considered 'noble'. This has prompted a soul-searching exercise to understand the problems involved.

Ethics is an important yet neglected issue in the field of medicine. When discussed, it provokes controversy. In the West we find conscious and continuous debate on this subject. Ethics is not a forbidden word there nor are

Some ten percent of marriages are said to be infertile. As cures for infertility have had very limited success, methods of artificial conception are fast gaining ground. The use of these methods, however, gives rise to legal and moral issues. P. M.