Legal Advice

Couple of days back, a friend called me up with a peculiar request.

My friend runs a small dispensary in a remote part of the country. One of her friends came with a young girl to her clinic few days back. The girl was pregnant, but not married. 

According to this lady, the girl was sent to her by one of her relatives from a remote village. The girl had become pregnant after being raped by her school teacher. The school teacher is a revered man in the area and nobody would believe her story. 

As is the case in a rural remote part of the country, the girl's parents are concerned that the girl's future would be ruined if the matter is raised in a legal/public forum. The girl’s family wanted to settle the issue quietly.

Someone suggested that she goes somewhere far away and deliver the baby. And that was when the family who was known to my doctor friend got into the picture. They plan to adopt the baby as soon as the girl delivers.

My friend is concerned about the ethics and legality of the issue. She feels concerned that a rape has happened and the offender has been left unpunished. She is also concerned that her family friend and the biological mother of their baby would know each other, and also about what happens if the girl refuses to part with the baby once she delivers. And mainly, the legal status of such an adoption. 

When the doctor confided about her concerns to her friend, she replied that she was also quite ignorant of these aspects. She has asked my friend to give the best advice.

Would an agreement between the childless family and the pregnant girl be valid if it states that the family would look after the girl provided the girl gives the baby to the family once she delivers? And what happens about the issue of rape? As responsible citizens of the country, can one close our eyes to the injustice that has happened to this girl?

The girl is only 16 years old and she is around 30 weeks pregnant. Should the doctor advice her friend to leave the girl back to her village? Should she advice her to take the girl to a place where she can deliver and put up the baby for adoption? Or can her friend continue with how things have been planned. 

Looking forward for your comments and advice . . . 

Kept Waiting . . .

Few days back I had a date in a court. I had to give my expert opinion as a witness to a medico-legal case. Something very common in the life of a doctor. 

I reached the court at around 7 early morning. We've made it a routine to route all our medicolegal cases through our lawyer. It's a bit more expensive but saves us all the hassles. So, I was there at the table of our lawyer waiting for the judge to call me. 

To cut the story short, the judge called me at around 9:00 am and he took up my case at around 9:30. The cross examinations and other formalities took around half hour. I was ultimately back at NJH by around 11 am. As I drove back, I wondered about the time I lost waiting for the venerable judge. 

In India, we are quite used to waiting . . . Waiting for trains that are running late, waiting for the bank teller to open his counter, waiting for some shop to open it's shutters, waiting for a traffic jam to clear out . . . the time we spend waiting in our lives are huge. 

And of course, we are always well prepared to wait . . . a book in hand . . . and with the cell phones now, one can always keep one selves entertained. 

It was sad that even at the level of the judiciary one had to wait. The summer timing for the courts in this part of the country is 7:30 am. But, the judge did made his arrival after 2 hours. I can now imagine how we have ended up with quite a large number of pending cases before the judiciary. There has been quite a lot written on it. 

Talking of arriving late and keeping people waiting, I think that it's one way of showing people how important you are. The higher the position, the more you made people to wait. One can remember waiting for the local politician to arrive at a function . . . and even the time one has to wait to see a doctor. 

To see a doctor . . . that reminds me about how we made a small, but major change couple of years back about our approach to patients. Many of my colleagues were quite sceptic about the possible returns. Now, as we analyse our patient load over the last year, we get feedback that the strategy has worked. 

In most hospitals, the outpatient department starts after the doctors finish off the ward rounds and the other work in the wards. Therefore, the patients wait for quite a long time. We made a policy to ensure couple of doctors started off outpatient work sharp at 8:30 in the morning. 

Now, we get almost 50 patients before 10 am . . . 

I presume that we would gain a lot by ensuring that we don't keep people waiting. It wastes resources. It builds up stress. And you can imagine a whole chain of events which impacts many lives and communities. 

So, could I request you not to keep your clients/patients/customers waiting . . . We will end up saving quite a lot . . . time, energy and resources. And that would be part of our nation building efforts . . .