Women of child bearing age fall into two categories; those who are trying to get pregnant, and those who are not. Development in the technology of sex selection techniques has a direct relation to the declining juvenile sex ratio in our country. The decline in the sex ratio can adversely impact the natural equilbrium of nature and destroy our moral and social fabric.Ironically the major reason for declining sex ratio is the proliferation of modern tecnology and easy and affordable access to such tecnology with its rapid expanding use for the purpose of pre and post conception sex selection followed by the elimination of foetus, if it found to be female. Rapid proliferation of the reproductive tecnologies in the latter half of the twentieth century has redefined reproduction in unprecedented as the technique to ensure fertility of unfertile woman, to control the excessive birth and to guarantee the birth control way.
From the past sixty years, in India there is rapid devlopment in Science and tecnology. This new devlopment process produce new things, various tecnology are used upon plants to increasing the production, these devlopment process touches the human boby also. Some scientific techniques are used to cure incurable diseases; some are used to detect the diseases, some to increase the fertility and some to control the fertility. The most important questioin here to answer is that whether reproductive tecnologies are women friend or foe.
Women health issue includes menstruation, contraception, maternal health, child birth, menopause and breast cancer. They also includes medical situations in which women face problems not directly related to their biology, for example gender differentiated access to medical treatment. The main area of the concern paper is to analyse the safety, effectiveness and acceptability of the reproductive tecnologies upon women health. Women health was one of the issues in Fourth World Conference on Women and also in Beijing Platform of Action that lay down that Women’s health involves their emotional, social and reproductive health.Reproductive health as per the CEDAW convention is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes.
As per the Convention of Elimination of Discrimination against women, reproductive health therefore implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so.Along with reproductive health, reproductive health care is defined as the constellation of methods, techniques and services that contribute to reproductive health and well- being by preventing and solving reproductive health problems. It also includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and personal relations, and not merely counselling and care related to reproductiion and sexually transmitted diseases. At present new reproductive tecnologies NRTs are a broad constellation of tecnologies aimed at facilitating, preventing or otherwise intervening in the process of reproduction.This includes for example, Ultrasound, contraception, abortion, antenatal testing, birth tecnologies, and conceptive tecnologies. What started with tecnologies like ultrasound is that selection of the sex within the womb of mother, if female sex is detected the practice of female foeticide occurred in rampant, which effect the ratio of female in every part of the world, aminocentesis, and sperm sorting has the other part of these tecnology which acquired a new meaning with advanced tecnologies like re- implantation genetic diagnosis(PGD).
Initially this tecnology was used to detect genetic abnormalitries in the embryo prior to implantation, is now in rampant use to pre –select the sex of the embryo during IVF Procedure. These procedures are further resulted into gender discrimination and reduce in female sex as per the census. In India the practice of sex selection and female feoticied is still in excessive despite legislative restriction imposed by the Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994.The Pre Conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act was passed in 1994 making sex- selective abortion illegal. After the sex is determined through tests, the family decides whether to abort the child or not.
Upto 15 weeks gestation, suction aspiration or vaccum aspiration are the most common surgical methods of induced abortion, Manual Vaccum Aspiration (MVA) consists of removing the foetus or embryo, placenta,and membranes by suction using a manual syringe, while Electric Vaccum Aspiration(EVA) uses an electric pump.These techniques differ in the mechanism used to apply suction, in how early in pregnancy they can be used, and in whether cervical dilation is necessary. Unsafe abortions result in approximately seventy thousand maternal deaths and million disabilities per year globally. In the Nothern state of India these technique are less in use but according to some research the sex selective abortion in these state are more as compare to other parts of India.
The techniques used in Northen State are “induced abortion” and “unsafe abortion”.Unsafe abortion cause both short- term and long-term physical complications, and can significantly affect a woman’s ability to have healthy future pregnancies. Not only this abortion cause physical complications include cervical lacerations and injury, uterine perforations, bleeding,hemorrhage,serious infection,pain and incomplete abortion. Risk of complications increase with gestational age and are dependentn upon the abortion procedure.
It have been indicated that induced abortion can adversely affect a woman’s future risk of breast cancer.Further, it has been clearly shown that abortion in young women causes the loss of a protective effect from a first, full-term pregnancy which when followed by the delay in child bearing, has the net effect of an increased risk for breast cancer. Assisted reproductive technology is used to achieve pregnancy by artifical or partially artificial means, it is reproductive tecnology used primarily in infertility treatment, otherwise known as ‘fertility treatment’.The International conference on population and Devlopment (ICPD) was held in Cario, Egypt from 5th to 13th September 1994, focuses on meeting the needs of individual women and men ratheer than on achieving demographic targets. Chapther xii of the conference deals with the adoption of new tecnology to control the fertility,but regulating that the new tecnology meet user’s need and are acceptable, easy to use, safe, free of side-effects, effective and affordable.
Testing and introduction of all new tecnologies should be continually monitored to avoid potential abuse.The conference emphasis on control the population, but it does not mean control the female population by misusing new tecnology. According to the ICPD,1994 priority should be given to the devlopment of new methods for regulation of fertility for men, as well as to research on sexually tranmitted diseases (STD), including HIV/AIDSand on infertility. One scientific term for the State of Pregnancy is gravidity (adjective ‘gravid’) medically; a woman who has never been pregnant is referred to as a nulligravida, a woman who is pregnant for the first time as a primigravida and a woman in subsequent pregnancies as multigravida or multiparous.
Here I like to express the assisted reproductive technology used upon nulliugravida to make her fertile. At present various Assisted Reproductive Technique (ART) are used to convert women from nulligravida to primigravida and multigravida. New devlopments in assisted reproductive tecnologies have enabled many people to have biologically related children who previously could not. These techniques are artifical insemination; in vitro fertilization and surrogacy have made achieving pregnancy possible without engaging in sexual intercourse. This approach may be undertaken sometime voluntary or some time forcely due to infertility.
