[Ethical dilemmas in medicine. The interruption of pregnancy in woman].
Pregnancy interruption or abortion may be spontaneous or induced for medical, legal, demographic, and personal reasons. Different events that are present during the woman´s gravid period were described, paying attention to the differences in between fertilization and conception. These issues are very important because people or institutions mix these concepts and posit that pregnancy or conception starts at fertilization in opposition to the actual medical and scientific knowledge. In Mexico there are several millions of spontaneous and induced abortions without medical care, responsible for the high maternal-infant mortality rates. To avoid this undesirable situation, it has been proposed to follow the established WHO guidelines and adopt national health policies to re-orientate population goals on life quality, gender equity, universal public health services, and to promote the new holistic concepts of reproductive and sexual health such as: family planning, use of anti-fertility methods, adolescent reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases, maternal and newborn health, peri- and post-menopausal women's health, and prevention, diagnosis, and opportune treatment of mammary, cervical-uterine, and ovarian cancers. Finally, it is recommended to revise our national health policies and existing laws on abortion de-penalization.
Expresidente de la Academia Nacional de Medicina y de la Academia Mexicana de Ciencias. Departamento de Biología de la Reproducción, Clínica de Planificación Familiar, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Ciudad de México, México.
Carlos
C
Gual-Castro
D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000941:ethics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007229:Infant Welfare; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D008429:Maternal Welfare; D008800:Mexico; D011247:Pregnancy; D060728:Reproductive Health