This article discusses the illegality of abortion in Colombia, situating this country within the 0.4% of the world population where abortion is completely banned. Absolute criminalization of abortion turns it into a public health matter and produces social inequality. The Colombian legislation has always disregarded women as individuals and as persons in full possession of their legal rights. I...

There will always be women who need abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, and their reasons are often compelling. Although second trimester abortions carry relatively more risks than first trimester abortions, abortion is still very safe throughout the second trimester if done in safe conditions. This paper is about law and policy on second trimester abortions, which are allowed on more restri...

OBJECTIVES This article examines trends in teenage pregnancy in Canada, focussing on induced abortions, live births and fetal loss among women aged 15 to 19 in 1997. DATA SOURCES The data come from the Hospital Morbidity Data Base and the Canadian Vital Statistics Data Base at Statistics Canada, and the annual Therapeutic Abortion Survey, conducted by the Canadian Institute for Health Informa...

The association of pregnancy and onset or relapse of multiple sclerosis is well known to every clinician and raises practical problems in clinical work. The problem of the relationship between multiple sclerosis and pregnancy and childbirth had been the subject of several investigations. Early investigators (Beck, 1913) considered pregnancy so detrimental to patients with multiple sclerosis tha...

A male infant was diagnosed prenatally at 20 weeks of gestation with posterior cervical cystic hygroma. The mother was a 31-year-old gravida, who had an otherwise normal systemic examination. A therapeutic abortion was arranged and fetus was aborted. Sonographic findings were confirmed on examination of aborted fetus

Jérôme Lejeune's greatest achievement was the discovery of the genetic basis of Down's syndrome, which he named trisomy 21. His important research in human genetics, as well as his humanitarian spirit and fight against therapeutic abortion, rightly led to his recognition as the founder of modern genetics.

Feticide, the practice of terminating the life of an otherwise viable fetus in utero, has become an increasingly common practice in obstetric centres around the globe, a concomitant of antenatal screening technologies. This paper examines this expanding practice in light of the concept of human dignity. Although it is assumed from the outset that even viable human fetuses are not persons and as...

Alfathesin and thiopentone were compared in a double blind study where each drug was given by intravenous infusion supplemented with fentanyl and nitrous oxide, in 54 healthy female patients under-going therapeutic abortion. The two drugs were similar in terms of changes in cardiorespiratory variables, side effects, clinical efficacy, and patient acceptability. Alfathesin produced a significant...