Magic bullets and other so-called quick fixes
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Ameer Hamza
TV channels these days have been running a sophisticated ad, promoting the 'morning-after pill' (MAP) for victims of amorous accidents, in which the fecund female finds herself in a soup. Be it an experience within or without a recognized partnership, the advice is: just pop a magic bullet into your mouth and rid yourself of both the anxiety and unwanted zygote. The advice is directed at the woman. Mind you, it has neither suggestion nor admonition for the equally culpable male although there are so many scented, 'luxury' products that the virile partners could wear before embarking on such lusty adventures. Of course that would be against the interest of MAP marketers, though well within the manufacturer's fashionable Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) towards protecting the well-being of women. These drugs do have unpleasant side effects, don't they ?
But the marketing talents of the producers have been quite clever in capturing the imagination of even rational governments. At the turn of the century, on the eve of 2001, to be precise, Britain went ahead and announced that this highly controversial 'emergency contraception' would be readily available over the counter. The population controllers have long been touting MAP as the easiest answer to the problem of unwanted pregnancies both among married couples and young girls who happen to lose their heads and give in to their basic urge to go the whole hog with their boy friends. The number of teenage pregnancies in the UK is appalling, to say the least.
But the British step shocked many parents in conservative societies where culture, custom and the guidance of guardians are still considered the most important factors in building character and preventing unwanted pregnancies. To all intents and purposes, making the magic pill available to little girls, is nothing but blatant encouragement of irresponsible behaviour in children. It is as much to say, 'Have fun kids, but don't forget the pill!' Do parents and guardians have no responsibility towards their wards with respect to giving them the right education, the right upbringing, so that their attitude towards sexuality is not that of mindless consumers ? It is a pity, say some Bengali parents, that the British government should succumb to the pressures of the pharmaceutical industry and its promoters, and throw both their moral duty and their children's health to the wind.
MAP is a potent drug which is known to fail at least 15 times out of a hundred, and the risk of ectopic pregnancies (fertilized egg getting stuck inside the fallopian tubes, sometimes with fatal consequences for the girls) is said to be quite high. Besides it is not going to prevent STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) like AIDS. The aggressive marketing of this pill is pegged on the pretext that it will help girls and women avoid pregnancies without the hassle of the more traumatic type of abortion, which is necessary if unwanted conception is ignored for more than a few weeks. In Bangladesh MAP continues to be promoted countrywide, allegedly to help the countless victims of rape, which is a disturbingly common phenomenon, specially in Bangladesh's growing industrial sector.
The number of poor vulnerable girls who are often preyed upon, is not insignificant. For them MAP may be a godsend. Indeed nobody can argue against helping rape victims with MAP, but aren't we skewing up the issue ? It seems we are putting the entire burden on the poor girls and absolving the state organs of doing their duty with respect to law and order and the protection of citizens from such heinous crimes. The right remedy for rape, according to many hard-nosed women's rights activists, is to rewrite the relevant legislation and include castration of proven rapists ---- nothing more nor less!
TV channels these days have been running a sophisticated ad, promoting the 'morning-after pill' (MAP) for victims of amorous accidents, in which the fecund female finds herself in a soup. Be it an experience within or without a recognized partnership, the advice is: just pop a magic bullet into your mouth and rid yourself of both the anxiety and unwanted zygote. The advice is directed at the woman. Mind you, it has neither suggestion nor admonition for the equally culpable male although there are so many scented, 'luxury' products that the virile partners could wear before embarking on such lusty adventures. Of course that would be against the interest of MAP marketers, though well within the manufacturer's fashionable Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) towards protecting the well-being of women. These drugs do have unpleasant side effects, don't they ?
But the marketing talents of the producers have been quite clever in capturing the imagination of even rational governments. At the turn of the century, on the eve of 2001, to be precise, Britain went ahead and announced that this highly controversial 'emergency contraception' would be readily available over the counter. The population controllers have long been touting MAP as the easiest answer to the problem of unwanted pregnancies both among married couples and young girls who happen to lose their heads and give in to their basic urge to go the whole hog with their boy friends. The number of teenage pregnancies in the UK is appalling, to say the least.
But the British step shocked many parents in conservative societies where culture, custom and the guidance of guardians are still considered the most important factors in building character and preventing unwanted pregnancies. To all intents and purposes, making the magic pill available to little girls, is nothing but blatant encouragement of irresponsible behaviour in children. It is as much to say, 'Have fun kids, but don't forget the pill!' Do parents and guardians have no responsibility towards their wards with respect to giving them the right education, the right upbringing, so that their attitude towards sexuality is not that of mindless consumers ? It is a pity, say some Bengali parents, that the British government should succumb to the pressures of the pharmaceutical industry and its promoters, and throw both their moral duty and their children's health to the wind.
MAP is a potent drug which is known to fail at least 15 times out of a hundred, and the risk of ectopic pregnancies (fertilized egg getting stuck inside the fallopian tubes, sometimes with fatal consequences for the girls) is said to be quite high. Besides it is not going to prevent STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) like AIDS. The aggressive marketing of this pill is pegged on the pretext that it will help girls and women avoid pregnancies without the hassle of the more traumatic type of abortion, which is necessary if unwanted conception is ignored for more than a few weeks. In Bangladesh MAP continues to be promoted countrywide, allegedly to help the countless victims of rape, which is a disturbingly common phenomenon, specially in Bangladesh's growing industrial sector.
The number of poor vulnerable girls who are often preyed upon, is not insignificant. For them MAP may be a godsend. Indeed nobody can argue against helping rape victims with MAP, but aren't we skewing up the issue ? It seems we are putting the entire burden on the poor girls and absolving the state organs of doing their duty with respect to law and order and the protection of citizens from such heinous crimes. The right remedy for rape, according to many hard-nosed women's rights activists, is to rewrite the relevant legislation and include castration of proven rapists ---- nothing more nor less!