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DMAI urges govt to set up task force to look into overall functioning of AI, IVF treatment industry
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Suja Nair Shirodkar
June 27 , 2015
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The Disease Management Association of India (DMAI) has urged the Central
government to set up a committee cum task force to look into the
overall functioning of artificial insemination (AI) and in vitro
fertilization (IVF) treatment industry. This demand comes in the wake of
lack of any evidence-based study in the country on whether AI or IVF
technology is being misused to detect and select the gender of the
child.
The association pointed out that there is a strong
possibility that these treatments are being ‘misused’ for sex selection
especially since sex selection is almost 100 per cent guaranteed by such
methods. Thus to curb the misuse of the same and ensure that this
technological intervention is not used to kill girl child in the
process, the association has sought urgent intervention from the
government.
This demand has been made strategically in the wake
of the government’s focused attention on its national campaign, ‘Beti
Padao, Beti Bachao’. The association strongly feels that to ensure
effective implementation of this initiative and to ensure that it
succeeds in all levels, the government should take immediate cognizance
of this matter.
Rajendra Pratap Gupta, president of DMAI
informed that it is a medical practice to use the pre-implantation
genetic testing during IVF to remove one or two cells from an embryo and
test them for genetic or chromosomal disorders. In fact Gupta states
that there are two types of tests i.e. pre-implantation genetic
diagnosis (PGD) and pre-implantation genetic screening (PGS).
“Both
these tests can be used to screen embryos for sex determination. PGD
and PGS are almost 100 per cent accurate at determining the sex of the
embryo, and so, once the sex is determined, the embryo can be implanted
in the womb for the chosen gender or sex. What is more shocking is that
both AI and IVF treatments being widely used in India are even being
promoted via advertisements in media as well,” he pointed out
He
further stressed that given the seriousness attached to sex selection,
and the skewed male-female ratio, it is time to conduct a national study
on all IVF/AI specialists, as to how many males were born after the
IVF/AI treatment and if majority of the births have been males through
AI/IVF or there have been cases of a sex selection.
In a
representation sent to the health ministry recently, the association
stressed that to strengthen and protect the interest of the girl child,
the government must initiate a nation wide programme to gauge its impact
on gender equality. “We strongly believe that findings of the study
could be a good starting point for deciding on the future course of
action or corrective measures,” Gupta added.
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