Ethical Perspective Of Ultrasonography For Sex Determination: Lead To Abortion

Sex selective abortion is the terminating of pregnancy that is based on the predicted sex of the baby by ultrasound. The abortion of the fetus is more common where the cultural norms, values male child over female. Especially this practice is more common in Pakistan and other developing countries like china and India. According to Population Service International (PSI) more than 90% of ultrasound during pregnancy is performed for sex determination. In Pakistan many health professionals are practicing illegal in the community. These people not only practicing illegally but they misuse the technology also. According to Ravitsky (2011) excessive ultrasound imaging can harm the fetus, so the health professional should focus on the ‘Primum non nocere’ (first do not harm). Mostly in the early stages of pregnancy the female does ultrasound not for the sake of medical diagnosis but to know about “Pink and Blue”. From an ethical point of view this ‘pink and blue, phenomenon of sex determination is intriguing. This practice is more common in rural areas. This issue lead to violate the principle of ethics that is ‘justice’ and ‘the right to life’. In the above scenario the pregnant women were giving preference to a male fetus on the female fetus that's why she was going to abort it, and this is the most common practice in the rural community of Pakistan. Abortion itself is debatable but in this article, my focus will be rested on ultrasound use for sex determination. Abortion cannot solve social problems such as poor housing, financial status or others which lead women to terminate their pregnancy.