Female FeticideFollow

If you need me to say the obvious, then here it is:

Withholding medical test results for sociopolitical reasons is a bad idea. It sets a bad precedent, and it treats people like chattel.

The reason it's being done is still the larger problem as far as I'm concerned, however.

I'm surprised the religious right isn't goose-stepping all over this, in a way, since it seems likely to prevent some number of abortions greater than zero.

Well, it is Canada. The religious right is far smaller here and gets drowned out more often than not when they do speak up.

Ours is doing fine, we've slimmed it down quite nicely. You guys though, you've got some work to do.

It seems like every four years we have to add another hole to our Bible Belt.

Tragedy of the commons is an actual tragedy!

Edit: To be less obtuse, I don't think we can blame Chinese folks for wanting baby boys (but blame away for aborting girls). This represents the best chance they'll have for their one child to be able to support them in their old age. Similarly, as mentioned above, it's hard to blame the Chinese government as they couldn't know that abortion technology would become so prevalent.

Really, it's a case study in unintended consequences.

Edited, Jan 18th 2012 9:45am by Demea

This is the ratio of boys to girls?

Just goes to show you, that Y chromosome is tough.

wow, this is sad...

Comes with less prison time as well.

I thought that China was the only country that had the one child policy? If that's true, why would they practice female infanticide (or target female babies for abortions) in the first place?

I feel like China could have done a better job of this if they had just made a 2 child policy instead. Although that doesn't mean that baby girls wouldn't have been at risk, but I think it probably would have helped decrease the likelihood. I don't know if it's a plus side or not, but a lot of baby girls in China aren't killed or aborted, they're raised in orphanages. I think that's what led to the "trend" of Westerners adopting Chinese baby girls. Plus, I remember when I was a teenager, watching the summer Olympics, and them doing a little biography on one of the gymnasts from China. She was raised in an orphanage, but somehow had managed to become one of the country's best gymnasts.

Which randomly raises another question for me. What does the government do if a couple has twins or triplets? I know there's the option of keeping a second baby but paying a fine, but obviously that's only an option for people who can afford the fine.

While it may not be illegal in other countries to raise more than one child, it sure is expensive (which kind of hits your last point as well).

I feel like you're about three and a half decades late to the debate.

A 2 child policy? Because two boys are better than one?

I wanted to hire a midget and have it act like a baby for six months but my wife wouldn't let me.