§ Mr. Edwin Brooksasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement about vasectomy and family planning.
§ Mr. Crossman:Yes. Hitherto doctors have been able to perform vasectomy under the National Health Service only when it is in the medical interests of the man concerned. I have now informed the representatives of the medical profession that I accept that this operation may be performed on the husband in the interests of the health of either husband or wife. The consent of husband and wife would naturally be required; and the decision to perform the operation and the priority to be accorded to it in relation to other demands for surgical work is of course a matter for the surgeon concerned.
I am aware that there are strong arguments for other, more far reaching, extensions of National Health Service family planning facilities, notably the supply on prescription of free contraceptive pills, which are at present free only where pregnancy would carry a medical risk, to all who need them, whether on medical or other grounds. This however raises large social and financial questions and I have no new policy to announce at present.