Abortion: medical progress and social implications Ciba Foundation Symposium 115 Chairman: D.T. Baird 1985 Worldwide, millions of abortions are induced every year. The problem of abortion will not disappear quietly from any society. There is therefore a need for the type of debate recorded in this book between representatives of the law, sociology, psychology, moral theology and policy-making, as well as medicine and basic science. The contributors examine abortion services in different countries; they discuss the medical and social, emotional and psychiatric effects of abortion and the refusal of abortion; and they survey old and new methods of performing abortions, from massage to menstrual induction with a morning-after pill. Above all, they tackle the moral, legal and political aspects. There is plenty of tension but no hostility in these discussions. Malcolm Potts, who initiated the symposium, points out that right-to-life supporters and right-to-choice supporters have the same goal, the minimum amount of wasted life; but 'there is no solution to abortion other than the obligation to submit our ideas to inspection by other people, and the perpetual need to accept that one may always be wrong'. The book is for health professionals at all levels. It should also be read by 'everybody who thinks that abortion is important but complicated and who is willing to learn more, even if it means changing their mind'. Other Ciba Foundation Symposia published by Pitman: No. 105: Mechanisms of alcohol damage in utero Chairman: O.E. Pratt 1984 ISBN 0 272 79774 X No. 98: Molecular biology of egg maturation Chairman: J.R. Tata 1983 ISBN 0 272 79730 8 No. 86: The fetus and independent life Chairman: G.S. Dawes 1981 ISBN 0 272 79650 6