Perspectives of Medical Interns Regarding Female Feticide and Declining Sex Ratio in India

BACKGROUND: Female feticide, skewed sex ratio, and its attendant social evils have grave ethical undertones for medical professionals and our commitment to save lives. A concerted effort by all is essential against female feticide. AIM: This study was to assess the knowledge of female feticide, declining sex ratio, and corrective measures among medical interns. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 79 medical interns. Data werecollected with the help of predesigned structured questionnaire. Chi-square tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and Z tests were used to test the significance level. RESULTS: Knowledge of current sex ratio was significantly better among female interns than male interns. Majority of interns opined that creating awareness is an effective measure to combat declining sex ratio and only 33 interns had correct knowledge regarding all measures. Only 37.9% of interns knew all the legal indications for use of prenatal diagnostic techniques. However, 81% of interns were aware of punishments mentioned for violation of the Act. Mean score of knowledge was 22.06 among males and 24.4 among females. CONCLUSION: The findings in our study underline the need to sensitize doctors regardingevery aspect of Pre-Conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act and selective sex determination.