[ View menu ]

Could Uzbekistan Have the General Idea Right?

Certain activist sites are in an uproar for the past few days because, they claim, women are forced to have hysterectomies in Uzbekistan, as the country’s authorities are desperate to curb its excessive population. However, after looking for something that I believe to be a reliable report about the situation, I really have to say that they certainly don’t seem to be forced to do anything. In many cases they appear to be persuaded to undergo the procedure, though it does seem that some may be tricked into it, which can be a problem, but that’s very different from forcing. Yet even if they would be forced, how exactly would that be a problem in itself, considering that human overpopulation is the worst threat to the world?

Let’s analyze what we know about that situation for a moment. The officials deny such orders, but say that the normal childbearing age is between 20 and 30, that it’s really not recommended for women under 20 or over 35 to have children and than a woman should wait at least three years between births, which all seem to be pretty sensible and fair recommendations, so no problem so far. The only mention of hysterectomies is an order that describes these procedures as a safe and effective form of contraception if performed properly and specifies that they should be conducted only by experienced physicians, free of charge, and with the consent of the patient, while also ordering provincial health officials to offer voluntary surgical contraception at hospitals. The authorities also state that the recommended methods of contraception take into account the woman’s health and perhaps her ability to care for any more children, which also seems perfectly fair.
However, some women and activists claim that doctors try to persuade them to have hysterectomies by stressing all the possible advantages and ignoring any potential problems that may be caused by the procedure. That’s not fair, but at the same time people are being persuaded to do a whole lot of things, including having children, by that same method. I’d really like to know how many doctors stress all the potential problems and disadvantages, affecting either the individual person or the world as a whole, that can be generated by having a child to patients who come to them with fertility problems, or even simply appear to consider having a baby! Now two wrongs don’t make a right, but I’d like to see both of these situations viewed and handled in the same way.
The real potential problem, if true, is that some women appear to be tricked into having a hysterectomy by doctors who tell them that an operation is required in order to solve a “dangerous gynecological disease” they supposedly suffer from. That’s still far from forcing them to have it done, but it is certainly a bad approach. However, I don’t particularly blame them, because if you’re stupid enough to go along with it without at least demanding to know exactly what the “dangerous disease” is and how exactly will it be solved and researching the answers you receive, you likely shouldn’t have children anyway.
As for actual forcing, even according to the activists that seems to only happen to women over 35 who have just had children, as those may either have the hysterectomy performed or at least have an intrauterine device implanted right after giving birth. Admittedly, if true, that certainly counts as having it done to them by force, but is it necessarily a bad thing? I don’t think so, because the frequency of complications caused by pregnancies does indeed increase after the age of 35, so this seems to be doing two good things at once, seeing as there are far too many people as it is and preventing further births can only help. It may be argued that a very small number of women over 35 who have already had one child could have one more because they possess truly extraordinary qualities that should be passed on to future generations, but those cases are extremely few and, considering the seriousness of the overpopulation problem, truly not something to worry about at this time. And besides, for example I know that in Finland it’s illegal to have a hysterectomy if you’re under 30, which seems no different from where I’m standing, yet I’m not seeing activist organizations in an uproar over that!

Overall, even if the activists are right, what’s going on in Uzbekistan doesn’t seem wrong to me. Sure, men should obviously also be targeted and it would be fairer to do without the trickery and at least openly force the procedure upon those who really should have it done, but it seems a step in the right direction from where I’m standing. Only a small step though, as something needs to be urgently done to drastically reduce birth rates everywhere in the world.
Still, it depends on what exactly the procedure entails. I’m saying it’s not wrong because that report states the procedure involves partially removing the uterus, no mention of the ovaries as well. Removing the ovaries could obviously have serious negative consequences and that would change my opinion, though those consequences wouldn’t be significantly different from those of spaying a pet, and nobody seems to agree with me when I say that spaying or neutering pets is very wrong…

I’m still pushing for much more drastic measures, but I could also work with what may currently be happening in Uzbekistan and make some recommendations to improve the program, if it indeed exists:
Firstly, it’s mandatory to target men as well as women. It may be that the baby develops in the woman’s body and therefore she has more say in whether or not the pregnancy will be carried to term than the man, but it takes two to make a baby.
Secondly, people who appear willing and capable of understanding and applying other safe methods of contraception should be given the benefit of the doubt and not pressured to use surgical methods if they don’t want to unless they prove to be undeserving of such trust by unwillingly getting pregnant or causing pregnancies. Actually, such people should still be allowed to use other methods of contraception even if they make one or two mistakes, though no more than that, as long as they show responsibility by terminating the resulting pregnancies within the first trimester.
Thirdly, if indeed that’s what’s currently happening, the authorities and doctors should stop hiding behind words and tricking people into undergoing such procedures, openly forcing them upon those who are either unwilling or incapable of properly avoiding pregnancies by using other methods.

0 Comments

No comments

RSS feed Comments | TrackBack URI

Write Comment

Note: Any comments that are not in English will be immediately deleted.

XHTML: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>