Docs thrash out pros and cons of abortion
Jury still out – no verdict given
The hills of Kandy came alive, not with the sound of music, but with arguments and counter-arguments on two major and controversial but timely issues surrounding life and death. Abortion and euthanasia, were the burning topics discussed in ‘friendly’ debates by doctors that took up the whole morning of Wednesday, in an event organised by the forward-thinking ‘Midcountry Psychiatrists’ at the Tourmaline Hotel.
At the end of the debates, the jury was still out, like in the country, and no clear verdict issued on whether abortion and euthanasia should be legalized.
“We, the Mid-country Psychiatrists, meet once a month to discuss teenage pregnancies, plight of the Sri Lankan male etc. Abortion and euthanasia have been in the air for awhile,” said Senior Consultant Psychiatrist Dr. Ranil Abeyasinghe based in Kandy, pointing out that politicians don’t touch these issues. “It’s a political graveyard and ordinary people don’t want to hear it. So it is our duty to debate these topics and carry forward these issues, with reason and science prevailing.”
Explaining that there are tests to identify foetal abnormalities, he asked what could be done if such tests were positive. Affluent parents will go to Singapore and get abortions performed but the other parents went home with the babies who have such abnormalities.
Lauding the efforts of Consultant Psychiatrist Dr. Gihan Abeywardena attached to the Kurunegala Hospital and his team for seeing to all the behind-thescenes arrangements for the debates, Dr. Abeyasinghe said the ‘Mid-country Psychiatrists’ were an informal group drawn from Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Mahiyanganaya, Kurunegala and Nikaweratiya.
Thereafter, two groups of six doctors each locked horns to hotly debate abortion and euthanasia moderated by Prof. Varuni de Silva and Prof. Raveen Hanwella, both Professors in Psychiatry at the Colombo Medical Faculty, respectively.
While a majority of the debaters were Psychiatrists including two from Australia, the exceptions were an Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, an Anaesthetist and a Forensic Specialist from other medical fields and a Psychologist from the non-medical arena.
The first debate on ‘The woman should have the legal right to abortion in Sri Lanka’ then took off. The pro-abortion (proposing) team comprised Leader and Consultant Psychiatrist Dr. Kalyana Rodrigo from