All Indians, including me, know how serious this issue is in India. My parents always wanted a girl, and were blessed to have me. They were excited for my arrival, but my grandmother was not. She refused to talk to my mother, because I was the first girl born into the family. My grandmother wanted nothing but boys, so they can carry on the legacy of the family, while girls would be married off to another family. I think that sex-selection abortions are very wrong. I think that this is discrimination to females. These types of abortions make the society seem like it is ale dominate. Why should it matter if the baby is a boy or girl? They family should be happy for the baby regardless of the gender. What are your thoughts about this type of abortion? Do you think it is discriminating?
Friday, October 10, 2014
Sex-Selection Abortions
Sex-selection abortions are sadly performed alot in India, as discussed in class. Indian families think its a big burden to have a female mainly because, of financial issues. A girl needs much more things than boys do. In the old days, if one wanted their daughter to be married to a good family, the family would have give a big dowry. The better and richer the family is the bigger the dowry. Now, the Indian government has made dowry and sex-selection abortions illegal. All ultrasound machines have to be registered and the doctor can not tell the sex of the baby. According to the article I have attached, a stat shows that for every 1000 men there are only 618 women. The article then states that this ratio can be very hazardous socially and economically.
http://www.newsrecord.co/answering-for-indias-missing-girls-sex-selective-abortion-in-india/
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I totally agree with your post. This aborting babies that are testing positive for Down syndrome give great cause to be shocked and concerned.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was something brought up in class that is extremely worthy of consideration. And that is: if this is permissible (morally), what are the future implications. Looking at this from a Rule Utilitarian, Kantian and Natural Law moral perspective, such an act is morally not permissible.
Aborting babies testing positive for Down syndrome surely does not offer the best possible benefit (Rule-utilitarian) in areas of trust for medical testing, evaluative measures, parental decision making. Kantian argument would say the abortion (Down syndrome testing) is being used as a means to an ends. Also, it violates the Categorical Imperative. The possibility of an action such as this becoming something practiced and permitted across the board in any circumstance would send the country down a spiral that at some point could encompass something as trite as, eye color. Natural Law surely would rule this out as it violates the laws of nature (trying to become ones own God to factor out a perceived deficient within humanity).
This has an overtone of using abortion as a way to genetically engineer what someone has arbitrarily set as “preferred” in their own manner of thinking. I believe this really would have a great societal, economic, cultural, spiritual effect in everywhere practiced. This seems to go hand in hand with the other part of the article about aborting girls. (This is something that China is experiencing now. Because of the one child mandate, couples have chosen to abort girls for boys. Now the nation’s population is showing the effects – militarism - of this male surplus.)
I completely agree with both the original post and to rosemary as well, if abortions happen because of prenatal testing for down syndrome, who knows where it could potentially lead too. Next thing you know, people will be aborting children because of physical characteristics or any minor defect for that matter that could otherwise be treatable. I personally think abortion is morally wrong, except in the case of rape or incest, then i believe it is morally permissible. Other than that, i believe abortion is wrong in any other sense. I believe that God has a plan for everyone and that all life is sacred. If I had a child with down syndrome, I would love him or her just as much as I would a normal child. Those are the cards you were dealt with and you have to be able to be ready for possibilities such as birth defects or down syndrome. Just because a child is different, doesn't mean that it deserves to die because it is not what you want it to be. The whole idea of abortion and genetic engineering makes me sick in many different ways.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your argument this will affect the nation in the future. With fewer females the fertility/reproduction will decline and cause many problems that are social and economical. Only a male driven society will have many social problems to. The only way to help this problem is by proper eduction by many public heath initiatives.
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