MEDICAL ETHICS: PRECONCEPTION AND PRENATAL DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUE ACT 1994 LEGAL APPLICABLITY AND CHALLENGES
AUTHOR – VEDHA GEETHAN, STUDENT AT SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE IN LAW (SOEL), THE TAMILNADU DR. AMBEDKAR LAW UNIVERSITY
BEST CITATION – VEDHA GEETHAN, MEDICAL ETHICS: PRECONCEPTION AND PRENATAL DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUE ACT 1994 LEGAL APPLICABLITY AND CHALLENGES, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 5 (14) OF 2025, PG. 822-838, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Medical ethics intersects profoundly with reproductive health in India, where technological advances like ultrasound and amniocentesis have been misused for sex-selective practices, fuelling female foeticide and skewing child sex ratios. The Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994—commonly known as the PCPNDT Act—emerged as a legislative bulwark against this ethical malaise, prohibiting sex determination before or after conception while strictly regulating prenatal diagnostics to detect only genetic abnormalities, metabolic disorders, chromosomal issues, or congenital malformations. Enacted amid alarming demographic trends, such as the 1991 Census revealing a sex ratio of just 927 girls per 1,000 boys, the Act embodies the ethical imperative to safeguard the girl child’s right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution, transforming medical practice from a tool of discrimination into one of equity and humanity.