1. Singapore is a small metropolitan island in South East Asia, with an area of 450 square kilometres and a population of 3.5 million. A multi-racial, multi-religious society, it is a melting pot of both the east and west.

2. Over a few decades, Singapore has raced to the forefront of the technological frontier, providing excellent medical services in this region of the world. Concurrently, a worrying trend is beginning to develop &endash; Singapore has one of the highest abortion rates in the world, since the republic legalised the practice in 1969. This could be attributed to the low number of pro-life obstetricians and gynaecologists. Equally worrying is that there are no signs of any increase in numbers of pro-life doctors amongst the younger generation.

3. We would therefore like to examine the reasons why Singapore is not producing enough pro-life O&G's.

4. First of all, let us look at the demographical and religious composition of Singapore. Singapore is a secular state, with four main religions &endash; Buddhism/Taoism, Islam, Hinduism and Christianity, of which Christianity comprises only about 15% (according to the 2000 Census conducted by the Singapore Board of Statistics).

5. With Christians making up a minority of the local population, it is therefore, by extension, natural that there are few Christian doctors as well.

6. Another crucial reason why Singapore has few pro-life doctors is it's training programme. Singapore has a ratio of 100,000 to 150,000 people to 1 O&G. Currently there are about 229 O&G's in Singapore, with two-thirds in the private sector, and the remaining third in government service. About 8 to 10 new O&G's graduate yearly.

7. Prior to their training, these new doctors are first screened and interviewed by a panel comprising the 5 heads of departments in the government service. They are then required to go through a 3-year training programme before sitting for the post-graduate examinations.

8. During this 3-year stint, the trainee doctors are expected to go through sub-specialties including IVF, contraception and abortions. Pro-life doctors, however, need not necessarily perform such tasks personally and can make their own arrangements with their peers to cover this aspect of duty.

9. While there is no evidence of any bias or discrimination against Catholic/pro-life doctors in the selection of candidates for this traineeship, pro-life doctors often shun applying to specialise in O&G purely due to personal choice, fearing to tread the line on morality and inconveniencing others. Moreover, trainee doctors may also find it hard to justify their decisions to mentors who are not pro-life.

10. On the flip-side, Christian/Catholic doctors who are less strong in their convictions will not hesitate to carry out the grisly deed of abortions, IVF and contraception. In fact, 5 of the 7 IVF centres in Singapore, are headed by Catholics doctors.

11. We cannot deny that abortion is a lucrative trade. For each abortion, O&G's can charge from S$300 to S$1,000. For many doctors, especially young, un-established, struggling doctors, performing abortions is a source of easy money. Many doctors are therefore not able to resist the lure of such easy money and perform abortions during their formative years. With no impetus to stop, many continue to do so till the end of their careers, contributing to the increasing number of abortions performed each year.

12. Producing more pro-life O&G's in Singapore is certainly an uphill task. We may, however, approach the problem with a two-pronged approach.

13. The first step is to have an interim solution to increase the pool of pro-life O&G's in Singapore. Due to the low selection rates for specialising in O&G in Singapore, doctors can be aided (financially or otherwise) to pursue this course in foreign, accredited Catholic Universities that do not train doctors in abortion, contraception and the like. This provides an additional avenue for pro-life doctors to receive training that they may otherwise be denied of.

14. This, however, is not a permanent solution. It is even more important to inculcate pro-life ideals amongst the younger generation of doctors, many of whom have been influenced by the media to accept abortion as "just another procedure". This "contraceptive mentality" has to be combated at it's roots by forming Catholic/pro-life support and discussion groups for doctors, and generally educating doctors on the value of life.

15. Singapore, like many other countries around the world, is facing the uphill tasks of curbing abortion rates and training more pro-life doctors. Oftentimes the allure of money, the training process and other factors lead to young doctors abandoning their moral convictions and terminating thousands of young innocent lives. We should therefore try to encourage more pro-life doctors to specialise in O&G by giving them an additional avenue to train in. More importantly, we should also focus on educating them and providing them with morals, ethics and faith. It is through this that we can hope against the moral degradation of O&G's in Singapore.