Family planning in a

developing world ethical

perspective
Presented by
Ameer Muhammad

Outline

Why family planning or contraception?

The global coverage
The unmet needs
Ethical impasses in family planning
Family planning and population control
in developing countries using ethical
paradigm
The way forward

Why family planning or

contraception?
Family planning allows people to attain their
desired number of children and determine the
spacing of pregnancies.
It is achieved through use of contraceptive
methods and the treatment of infertility
Benefits:
Preventing pregnancy-related health risks in women
Reducing infant mortality
Helping to prevent HIV/AIDS
Empowering people and enhancing education
Empowering people and enhancing education
Slowing population growth

World Health Organization , Family planning/Contraception Fact sheet N351 Updated May 2015 (
http://who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs351/en/ )

The integrated power of Family

Planning (FP)
From

Integrate/Deal
with

To address

Family planning

Gender power
Woman centered
Quality of life
Socio-economic
culture
Values and
Ethics right

Maternal and
infant mortality
Maternal Health
Neonatal and
child health
Adolescent
health
Equity in health

Making Reproductive Rights and Sexual and Reproductive Health - A Reality for all a
framework United Nations Population Fund May 2008

Complexity of FP decision
making

AVSC International 1998

History of associated rights and FP

Tehran 1968 voluntarism in FP parents
have a basic human right to decide
freely and responsibly the number and
spacing of their children
Cairo 1994 Reproductive health and
right right to make decisions concerning
reproduction free of discrimination,
coercion and violence

Violation of voluntary
choices
Force abortion in China
Forced sterilization in India and Peru
Campaigns to sterilize persons with
mental disabilities, mental illnesses, or
hereditary diseases, and in some
countries the HIV+ive woman
Policies officially enforced through
rewards and incentives
Inadequate supplies and access

Transformation of FP
2012, the London summit on Family
Planning participated by 150 world
leader
Voluntary FP services for additional 120
million woman and girls by 2020
(FP2020).
Address unmet needs
Importance of access to contraceptive
as right and ethics
Protection of human rights for women
and girls

Ethics-based FP program
Right of individuals to:
Responsibly decide the number and spacing of
their children
Freely decide of available FP methods of their
choice
To Access information

Ten rights of clients building blocks of

ethics in FP program:
Information, choice, privacy, dignity, continuity,
access, safety, confidentiality, comfort and
opinion

Apply ethical approaches to FP

programs how?
Analyzing inequalities
Integration key principles of
accountability, empowerment,
nondiscrimination, and participation
Equitable service delivery
Focusing on availability, accessibility,
acceptability, and quality
Empowering individual

A developing world and ethical

aspects of FP
Why does family planning still
matter?
Poverty reduction: In 56 developing
countries, on average, the poorest fifth of
women had a fertility rate of six births,
compared with 32 births in the wealthiest fifth

Health benefits: Brings large potential health

and survival benefits for children, mainly as a
result of wider intervals between births

Gender-equality, human rights, and

education: Empowering individual in making
healthy choices which is progressing in slower

A perspective of Pakistan
With a rapidly growing population of 200 million,
Pakistan is the 6th most populous country in the
world, projected to become the 5th largest by 2050
Modern CPR is only 25.5%, informal settlements of
Karachi in improving child survival reveals CPR of <
10%.
Low literate populations living in rural areas and
informal settlements in urban areas (now estimated
to be more than 50% of Pakistans population) have
minimal use of modern contraception and the highest
fertility and child mortality rates.

Ethical aspects of FP in
Pakistan

Religious believes and constructivism

Lack woman empowerment in decision making
Poorly constructed informed choices
Poor access to modern methods specially the
population which is in urgent need (high child
mortality, high maternal mortality)
Myths and misconception
Poor access to quality services with regular followups
Poor integration of program to improve the right
to health