Hysterectomy is major surgery with a mortality rate of 1-2 per 1000 operations and an even higher complication rate. There is a widespread misconception, even among doctors that removal of the uterus, without removal of the ovaries has little or no long-term health consequences for the woman.

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

Organising camp for providing contraceptive services to a large number of people at one place has been a significant feature of the family planning programme. Table 1 would make the thrust of the camps very clear.

The Times of India dated 13 January 1994 featured on its front-page news of a tragic event. ‘A sixty-year old advocate... leaped to his death from the eighth floor of the Bombay Hospital and died of multiple injuries... (This followed) the revelation that he was HIV positive ...

Breastfeeding and lactational amenorrhoea play a unique role in child health, birth spacing and fertility regulation.

The chapter describes how the women's health programme was initiated, the philosophy and the values that the programme attempted to evoke, the envisioned role of the Women's Health Workers and the kinds of preparation
that needed to be done before the programme could start.

In India, girls are married off at a young age, sometimes as low as 9-11 years.

The practice of breast-feeding is almost universal in India. Protecting, promoting and supporting breast-feed in should be the foremost aim of all the communities. Compare the body of a lactating mother to a baby food factory and we find that she is far and away the most efficient [1].

Among most of Tamil Nadus rural population, especially if the villages are in remote areas, health is not very much a 'felt need'. If one discusses with poor villagers their needs and aspirations, there are many other priorities of a higher order e.g.

Men of the Chakhesang tribe of Nagaland aid their wives during delivery of the newborn. Most men in the picture-postcard village of Chizami in Phek district believe it is shameful to depend on a neighbour's help when such a momentous event is taking place in their family.