Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Gender selective in abortion
Today, I watched a documentary called India's daughter. It is based on 2012 Delhi bus gang rape. In the film, a woman mentioned that, in India, most women in rich family have had abortion because the baby was female. Indian women have lower social status than man. The unbalanced gender ratio leads to that some men cannot get married, which is one of the reasons for rape cases occurring frequently in India. So what do you think about this issue? Can you think about a way to prevent selecting gender? In India (also in China), it is illegal to know the sex of the baby. However, you can simply bribe the doctors. So, that's why only rich family can choose the sex of the baby. In poor family, women just keep having babies, until a boy is born.
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Hi Yuqi, I would like to clarify a few things:
ReplyDelete1. An unbalanced gender ratio is not the cause for rape cases occurring frequently in India. Indeed, the male - female ratio has gone down in the past few decades, causing for concern, yet we cannot link this as a direct cause for rape. An objection could be made in the form of - wouldn't more women lead to more rape?
2. Yes, in poor families, on several occasions, women just keep having babies until a boy is born - causing direct harm to the family. However, through personal experience and knowledge, I can safely say that women in rich families (generally speaking) do not have an abortion just because the baby is female - We cannot assume that because they can pay to find out the sex of the baby, they are more likely to abort a female fetus.
3. If doctors can be bribed into telling parents the sex of the baby, knowing that it is illegal given the possibility of female infanticide, then don't we have an even bigger moral issue at hand? Aren't these doctors indirectly helping cause it?
For your question "Can you think about a way to prevent selecting gender?" - One can't per say, 'select gender'. Abortion (with respect to female infanticide) would be more like eliminating one gender - thoughts? I would propose creating a system, or at least, an act to document reason for abortion. This step would be taken to eradicate the discrepancy between the male and female child. In case the reason points towards (directly or indirectly) the undermining of a female child, severe penalties will be given. The measure cannot exactly monitor the intentions of the parents, as they may be dishonest with the authorities, however, by implementing a system wherein regular checks are made, people may become more aware and fearful of the repercussions of gender bias.