Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 202, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1914 — VITAL STATISTICS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE [ARTICLE]

VITAL STATISTICS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE

Doctor Owes an Important Duty to Blake Prompt Report of Births —Dr. jHurty Explains.

The following letter is being sent out from the office of the state board of health:

A mother called at this office latey and asked for a transcript of the record of her child’s birth. Such requests come.from lawyers and from parents every day. The transcript wanted eould not be supplied because the doctor in attendance at the birth failed to make out a certificate. The document was wanted to prove the legitimacy of ;he child and clear the good name of the mother. The doctor’s neglect to obey-the law requiring him to report, and his neglect to fulfill all his professional duties/.brought disaster and sorrow to an infant and a widow. In another instance the ! doctor’s neglect to obey the law and to fulfill his entire duties to iis family, lost a little girl a for;une of $12,000. There is no defense for such delinquency of birth and deaths, that, through the demand of lawyers and judges, a law was passed requiring that doctors shall report all the births they attend within 36 hours, otherwise their bill for services becomes valid. In addition the delinquent doctor may be fined not less than $lO nor more than SSO. The legal recording of births and deaths is the book-keep-ng of humanity, and this bookkeeping is far more important than the book-keeping of our dollars.

, Dr. Frank Billings, of Chicago, probably the most eminent general practitioner in this country, says: “It is a privilege as well as a duty for doctors to report, for legal record, such information as they only may be able to give. Some doctors unhesitatingly enter t}ie legal field and declare the vital statistics law unconstitutional, but in this they disagree with the courts. Mothers will do well to inquire of their health offleer whether or not the births of their children are legally recorded; for, as one sorely disappointed mother said, “I never dreamed dt would be necessary for me to prove the legitimacy of my child in court.” Another said when we told her there was no record of the birth of her child: “Oh, why did my doctor treat me this way?” Every first mother receives a present from the state which will be promptly sent when the report of the birth reaches this office. Very respectfully, J. N. HURTY, Secretary.