Chapter 6. Ethics, spacing out of births and family planning

Abstract

Family planning first of all corresponds to a personal desire, and sometimes medical considerations to reduce the risk of maternal mortality connected with certain pathologies or worsened by a great number of previous pregnancies. But it can also correspond to political considerations when it is deemed necessary to exercise some control over the growth of the population. Prescribing a contraceptive is a medical act which, like all medical prescriptions, involves the responsibility of the doctor, and it theoretically meets a well thought out request from a woman who should be given prior information about the risk of using the method envisaged. Ethical problems can arise because of inadequate contraceptive practices. Indeed, when the main objective of Family Planning is to “control demographic growth”, and so to increase the number of contraceptive users, the health of those users may be totally passed over in silence...
This objective is defended by many Western non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which support and finance Family Planning programmes in many Third World countries by promoting and spreading contraceptive technologies that are reserved for countries where women are considered to have “too many” children.
After presenting the various aspects of the world situation, we shall present the Algerian situation, where, with the Birth Spacing programme, women’s freedom has always been respected.