Eugenic Abortion and Female Infanticide Cost 60 Million Females Life
How bad are the imbalances between males and females in Asia? Generally, the normal sex ratio at birth (SRB) is between 103 and 105 males per 100 females, and in rare cases 106 or a bit more than that. Countries that are known to have or have had higher sex ratio at birth numbers include South Korea, which peaked at 115 in 1994, Singapore where the SRB registered 109 in 1984 and China, which has seen the numbers increase over the past two decades. Published reports in China show the gender ratio for newborns in 2005 was 118 boys for every 100 girls, and in some southern regions like Guangdong and Hainan, the number has reached 130 boys for every 100 girls.
This story is really a tragic tale of how rejecting human exceptionalism leads to the deaths of those deemed inferior--in this case girls--mostly in Asia. According to the United Nations, 60 million female fetuses or baby girls are "missing"--meaning they were killed via sex selection abortion or infanticide--because they were of the "wrong" sex. This is leading to a growing gender imbalance. From the story:
In India, the result is causing a crisis, including human trafficking:
This spells trouble in the future for societal and family stability. And it is a terrible setback for the important principle of gender equality and the intrinsic value of human life simply because it is human. Truly, we discard human exceptionalism at the peril of the weak and vulnerable.Experts who have analyzed the National Family Health Survey 2 (NFHS2) estimate that about 300,000 girls go "missing" in India each year. Other studies have put the number between 150,000 and 500,000.
While many people see this as a problem of the poor, analysts say it is more prevalent among those in the wealthier and educated segments of society.
Men in parts of India are also beginning to have difficulties finding brides, causing some to leave the country to do so. "Hindu girls are being smuggled and purchased from poor countries like Nepal and Bhutan to be brides for Indian men," said Bernard Dickens, professor emeritus of health law and policy at the University of Toronto Law School.
Labels: Female Infanticide. Eugenic Abortion. Human Exceptionalism
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 12:34 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
I grew up in an ultra-conservative church that believed that China's sex selection laws, which began in the 1970s, would lead to a massive gender imbalance and China would start a global war to capture wives for their soldiers. This would usher in Armageddon.
I don't believe that now.
But, it is interesting (tragically) to see which social travesties are resulting from this, plus it's far more widespread than China. I can only imagine that human-trafficking will only worsen before it gets better.
But a war for wives? That seems farfetched.
As an environmentalist, I still believe in ZPG (zero population growth), but as a liberatarian, population control must never be forced.
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It is not "eugenic" as it would not pull the bell curve X standard deviations to the right for a given trait...
HellKaiserRyo: Thanks for stopping by.
It most certainly is eugenic. Eugenic means good in birth and it presumes to determine which humans are better and which inferior. In this case, due to cultural reasons, females are considered not as good as males, hence they can be destroyed in order to obtain the "fit" humans, to use the old eugenics terminology.
When we decide we have the right to mold and shape our offspring to suit OUR desires, it is eugenics. And note that the very notion leads to killing--as did its first iteration.
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