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Ludhiana: MRI, CT scans are the new weapons of female foeticide, say radiologists
The Radiology Welfare Association India urges strict enforcement of the PNDT Act, citing MRI and CT scans as tools for illegal sex determination in Punjab.
The Radiology Welfare Association India has demanded strict enforcement of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) (PNDT) Act, 1994 regarding the operation by the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computed Tomography (CT) scan centers.
In a letter written to the Punjab health minister, signed by nine radiologists, they alleged that the “MRI and CT Scans are the new weapons of female foeticide”, while warning that modern imaging technology has made it frighteningly easy to determine foetal sex.
The letter said that an MRI takes less than 5 minutes to produce crystal clear images of foetal genitalia, with which even an untrained eye can identify the sex of the foetus.
The letter added that CT scans take under 2 minutes, with newer machines reducing radiation risks, making them a preferred tool for illegal sex determination. The radiologists alleged that hundreds of MRI/CT centres in Punjab operate without any oversight, blatantly violating the PC-PNDT Act.
They claimed that there are no “in-house radiologists and the technicians conduct scans unsupervised, while reports are generated remotely via unregulated tele-radiology networks”.
“This is not just negligence, it is an organised circumvention of the law”, they alleged, while pointing out, while ultrasound regulations have tightened, MRI and CT scans have become the new backdoor for sex determination. With instant image sharing, encryption, and deletion, these centres can operate undetected unless immediate action is taken, they warned.
The radiologists demanded that MRI and CT be brought under full PC-PNDT enforcement, and these be treated at par with ultrasound, as the law was intended to.
They demanded ban on “unsupervised teleradiology for scans”, saying no scans should be reported without an in-house radiologist.
They claimed that in Punjab, numerous diagnostic centres (having CT scan and MRI) are being run by non-medical graduates and technicians, with no in-house radiologists and no accountability at all.
