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The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved its order on a petition by a 26-year-old woman seeking to terminate her 33-week pregnancy on account of the foetus suffering from certain cerebral abnormalities. Justice Prathiba M Singh, while clarifying that she was not taking any view at the moment, also expressed her "ethical concern" in the matter and pondered upon the use of technology to detect any abnormalities in a foetus and thus, have only "prefect children". "There is one ethical concern that the court is thinking of and that is with technology. It is actually very easy to detect a number of abnormalities as of today. We are now almost talking of a full-term pregnancy (in this case)," the court said. "So I am not taking any view either way but I am just saying that are we looking at a society which only has perfect children?...If the means are provided, should the parents then have the choice of not having the child at all," the court questioned. After hearing the petitioner as we
The number of women who delivered in institutional facilities declined during October-December 2020 compared to that of the same period before the outbreak of COVID-19, according to a report by government think-tank Niti Aayog. During October-December 2020, nearly 53,48,000 women delivered in institutional facilities, which was lower than the pre-pandemic level (October-December 2019) of 54,98,000, said the report titled 'Preserving progress on nutrition in India: Poshan Abhiyan in pandemic times'. Besides, approximately 30,52,000 beneficiaries received post-partum check-ups between 48 hours and 14 days of birth during the October-December 2020 period against 31,31,000 such beneficiaries during the pre-pandemic (October-December 2019) period. The report also pointed out that the number of institutional deliveries conducted (including C-section) reduced in most states and UTs (32 out of 35 states/UTs) compared with the number of such cases recorded during the pre-pandemic period. Th
Every pregnant woman deserves the dignity guaranteed by the Constitution during motherhood, the Delhi High Court said while granting three-month interim bail to a pregnant woman accused of kidnapping and attempt to murder. Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta said giving birth to a child in custody would not only be traumatic for the mother but also impact the child adversely. "Pregnancy of a woman is a special circumstance which needs to be appreciated, as giving birth to a child while in custody, would not only be a trauma to the mother but also create an everlasting adverse impact on the child, whenever questioned about his birth. Every pregnant female deserves the dignity enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India during motherhood," the court said in its order dated August 18. "The Court is expected to take note of interest of a child, who is not expected to be exposed to the prisons, until and unless there is a grave danger in releasing the petitioner on bail," it ...
Pregnant women with COVID-19 are more likely to have complications with pregnancy and birth compared to those without the nfection, according to a study. The research, publishing on Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine, looked at hospitalisation for births in France during the first six months of the pandemic. The study suggests that vaccination may be useful to protect women and their babies, particularly for those at a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 infections. The researchers from the Universite de Paris in France analysed data for hospitalisations for birth after 22 weeks gestation in France between January and June 2020. Until March 15, all confirmed cases of COVID were hospitalised but after this hospital admission was based on the medical condition of the patient, they said. The researchers noted that of 244,465 births in hospital, 874 or 0.36 per cent of mothers had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Women in the COVID-19 group were more likely to be older, have obe