author
D. G. (David Gervan) McMillan
1904–1951
A doctor turned public servant, this New Zealand writer is best remembered for a major government report that examined social and medical issues with unusual seriousness for its time. His life moved between medicine, politics, and public debate, giving his work a clear sense of real-world stakes.
1 Audiobook
Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Various Aspects of the Problem of Abortion in New Zealand
by New Zealand. Committee of Inquiry into various aspects of the Problem of Abortion in New Zealand, D. G. (David Gervan) McMillan
About the author
Born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, in 1904, David Gervan McMillan trained as a doctor and went on to serve both as a medical practitioner and as a Labour Party politician. He studied at the University of Otago, worked in medicine in Taranaki, and later entered Parliament, where he represented a Wellington electorate.
McMillan is closely associated with the 1937 committee report on abortion in New Zealand, often referred to by his name because he chaired the inquiry. The report sits at the intersection of medicine, law, and social policy, and it remains the work most likely to bring modern readers to his name.
He died in 1951, just short of his 47th birthday. Though not widely known today as a literary figure, his surviving work offers a window into how one mid-20th-century doctor and politician tried to wrestle with difficult public questions in a rapidly changing society.