Consultants at the Periphery

Abstract

Turning to psychiatric indications, which occurred in 93 out of 100 terminations at Cambridge, one cannot help asking what good-if any-came of these operations. Personally I would agree with Dr. Myre Sim's conclusion that at present there are no psychiatric indications. As Hemphill' has written, " Depression, mania and schizophrenia are the only important forms of psychosis in pregnancy, which is comparatively rare anyway.. .. Termination, although often requested, can rarely be justified on psychiatric grounds." Perhaps Professor Rhodes (7 May, p. 1168) gets nearer the mark when he wonders " if we may not be in danger of losing sight of the fact that there are other solutions than termination of pregnancy in the psychiatrically ill pregnant woman." So much rubbish has been talked and written about abortion that it is exceedingly difficult to differentiate fact from fantasy. But it is high time that there was an end to the completely mistaken idea that only the rich are in a position to obtain medical justice. Medically and psychiatrically therapeutic abortion is seldom indicated because it is very seldom indeed that it does any medical good. In the very few cases where it does so, the patient will have no difficulty whatsoever in obtaining assistance under the