The government should amend the abortion law in the country enabling doctors to abort Thalassaemia foetus legally, Colombo University Medical Faculty former Dean Prof. Sanath Lamabadusuriya said.
He said according to the centuries old law, legal abortions are possible only if the mother's life is in danger.
Prof. Lamabadusuriya, a prominent pediatrician, addressing the media at the Government Information Department Auditorium last week, said foetuses with Thalassaemia can be aborted legally in other countries.
The government spends over US $ 2 million annually for Thalassaemia patients. Sri Lanka has around 3,000 Thalassaemia patients while between 60 and 80 infants with Thalassaemia are born annually in Sri Lanka, Prof. Lamabadusuriya said.
He said 2.5 percent of the total Sri Lankan population has Thalassaemia.
There is a 25 percent of possibility for two Thalassaemia carriers to have a Thalassaemia child. Only a bone marrow transplant can cure a child with Thalassaemia but it is complicated, costly and does not have an assurance. This incurable disease causes various life long difficulties for both the child and parents, he said.
Prof. Lamabadusuriya said if not treated, a child with Thalassaemia dies within five or six years. He said with medical treatment some Thalassaemia patient can live for nearly 50 years or more.
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