Selective Female Fetus Killing
Selective Female Fetus Killing
Picture this, you are at the doctors and you have just found out that you are pregnant, so many ideas and feelings will run through your body. However, not all people react with excitement in most third world countries this can either be a happy moment or the dawn before the pain. At the beginning of history you can see that infanticide has been carried out. From prehistoric times to the times of many great empires, the deaths of infants were accepted as a way to regulate the population. Many families left the decision to the father as to whether or not they kept the child or left it by the side if the rode in hopes a civilian would rescue the infant. This paper will focus on the female infanticide being practiced in India. Female infanticide refers to the intentional killing of the female fetus or infant females with the hopes of someday having a son that will benefit the family. The difference that this paper will look at is why the families choose to selectively kill their female offspring versus their male. The major problem associated with selective killing of the female falls with the lack of women to marry the abundance of males in the country. Moreover, the selective killing of the female fetus show the lack of status a female holds in third world countries.
The question would be how do women in third world countries commit this horrific crime. It is easier than we think the support from the doctors and the lack of punishment by governmental officials make this gendercide the norm in several third world countries. The doctors found that they can make a money profit by performing amniocentesis testing for women who wanted to know the gender of their unborn child. According to Karlekar, M. (1993), states that after the parents find out the gender of the unborn child they make a decision on whether or not they will keep the child. The women are often times ridiculed for producing female children and can be disowned by
Picture this, you are at the doctors and you have just found out that you are pregnant, so many ideas and feelings will run through your body. However, not all people react with excitement in most third world countries this can either be a happy moment or the dawn before the pain. At the beginning of history you can see that infanticide has been carried out. From prehistoric times to the times of many great empires, the deaths of infants were accepted as a way to regulate the population. Many families left the decision to the father as to whether or not they kept the child or left it by the side if the rode in hopes a civilian would rescue the infant. This paper will focus on the female infanticide being practiced in India. Female infanticide refers to the intentional killing of the female fetus or infant females with the hopes of someday having a son that will benefit the family. The difference that this paper will look at is why the families choose to selectively kill their female offspring versus their male. The major problem associated with selective killing of the female falls with the lack of women to marry the abundance of males in the country. Moreover, the selective killing of the female fetus show the lack of status a female holds in third world countries.
The question would be how do women in third world countries commit this horrific crime. It is easier than we think the support from the doctors and the lack of punishment by governmental officials make this gendercide the norm in several third world countries. The doctors found that they can make a money profit by performing amniocentesis testing for women who wanted to know the gender of their unborn child. According to Karlekar, M. (1993), states that after the parents find out the gender of the unborn child they make a decision on whether or not they will keep the child. The women are often times ridiculed for producing female children and can be disowned by
Cited: Bhatnagar, R., Dube, R., & Dube, R. (2005). Female infanticide in India: a feminist cultural history. (pp. 1-8). Albany, New York: State University New York Jones , A. (2002). Gendercide: Female infanticide. Retrieved on November 1, 2011 from DOI: www.gendercide.org. Karlekar, M. (1993). The girl child in india: Does she have any rights?. Canadian Women Studies , 15(2&3), 55-57.