Female Infanticide

In this short video and article on the topic of gendercide, reporter Elizabeth Vargas travels to India to found out from the people of India personally why there is such a shortage of females. She discovered that although aborting a fetus of a female child is illegal because of the shortage of females, families still continue to abort them because they don't want the burden that the baby girls brings. Vargas also discovered that illegal sex determination clinics can be found just about on every street. Men and their families also the wives to have sex determination tests and abort the baby if it’s female.

"Raising a daughter is like watering your neighbors’ garden.” That quote from a Hindu proverb.is referring to is how in some cultures when a daughter is old enough to be married, she leaves that family and joins her husbands'. So, raising a daughter in those cultures is seen as helping another family. Unlike females when a son is born he will stay and take care of the parents as they age. This son preference can lead to some countries committing gendercide. The act of gendercide is the mass killing of people because of their sex. Gendercide is a horrid trend that is due to the son preferences of many countries. Parents in Countries such as china and India have been killing there daughters. In India 25 percent of girls die before they can reach puberty. Also, 200 million women are missing because of being killed at a young age. There are many cultural causes of gendercide. The first is that boy babies are valued far more then female babies. Male children can carry on the family name, take care the parents when they get old and are less "expensive" to raise. In India there is a dowry system where in order for a woman to be married, the bride’s family must give gifts of money, land, livestock or other expensive items. This can put I strain on poorer families who cannot afford to pay a dowry or richer families who do not want to spend that type of money. So , when they have a girl child they either get an abortion or kill the child to save money. There was a Indian mother that

Infanticide is not unique to humans. It is practiced by many mammals including some primates. The main difference between human and animal infanticide is that infanticide in humans is performed by the parent(s) of the child while in the case of animals it is usually a male suitor (Caldwell and Caldwell, 2005, p. 208). In pre-modern societies infanticide was done instead of abortions as it allowed for sexual selection, it was much more effective than pre-modern contraception, and it did not require any special skills or esoteric knowledge (Caldwell and Caldwell,2005, p. 205). Infanticide has a history as a method of population control. It is more frequent to throw away girl babies. This may be because of dowries or other cultural reasons.

Abortion is the deliberate killing of the weakest and most defenseless among us. A pregnant woman has the right to decide whether her baby should live or die. But what about the unborn baby? Doesn’t it get a say? Doesn’t its life cost anything? According to the first amendment of the constitution, we have the freedom of speech. So why not give the speechless fetus a chance to come into the world? If the reason for an abortion is not having enough money or wanting to live a free life, then there are many organizations that can help children that have no support from their family. In this paper, I will defend the view that having an abortion is morally wrong.

Will, J. (2013). Beyond abortion: Why the personhood movement implicates reproductive choice. American Journal of Law & Medicine, 39(4). Retrieved from

Ask anyone what the number one debated topic in the world is today and you are almost guaranteed to hear “abortion”. It isn’t hard to imagine why this topic would leave such a bitter taste in some people’s mouths. Infants, and moreover children in general, are almost a form of an idol in our culture. The pure and innocent natures of children make the people around them, or at least most of them, fall head over heels in love with them. When someone decides to terminate a pregnancy, not only is it a huge setback to our culture, but our moral and ethical beliefs as well. This issue, unfortunately, is not a one size fits all scenario. Many situations can be considered when talking about the issue of abortion. Throughout this paper, I will be reflecting on the matter of abortion from my own personal perspective in general, in cases of rape, poor quality of life, eminent danger to child and/or mother, and incest.

Induced abortion is the deliberate ending of a pregnancy before the fetus is viable or capable of surviving outside a female’s body. Abortion has been practiced in every culture since the beginning of civilization” (Kaplan, Tischauser & Chara, 2015). Abortion is one of many controversial issues. It is a topic that is widely debated among many people. Abortion is a difficult topic of discussion, when the baby is a product or rape, or has Down syndrome or deformities. According to my Christian worldview, I will examine the abortion ethical dilemma, and compare it to other options of resolving the dilemma.

In the Eastern world, where boys are more heavily desired than girls, sex-selection is seen as a family’s perfect opportunity to have a boy. Unfortunately, with or without the availability of sex-selection in these areas, sexism remains a major problem. When many couples realize they are having a girl they will often malnourish or neglect the baby, as well as kill them through infanticide. Therefore, sex-selection in this region can prevent young girls from a life of abuse or negligence. The availability of sex-selection is not the problem in this area, but rather it is the lack of education that is preventing gender equality. Currently, there is a significant gap in the male to female ratio in Eastern countries. Of the entire Chinese population aged fourteen and younger, there are 1.16 boys for every girl, while in India there are 1.13 boys for every girl (CIA). Feminist movements, similar to the ones in the Western world in the 20th Century, need to take place in these areas. Additionally, women should be encouraged to participate in traditional male roles to show that they have just as much value as anyone

Infanticide is defined as the crime of killing of a child within the first 12 months of living. In some cultures, infanticide is acceptable if the parents decided to kill the child for a “good” reason. A “good” reason” to kill a newborn child would be because that child was born with a deformity, born out of wedlock, or if the children poses some type of “curse” (superstition) if they come out as twins. In different societies, this practice is standard and parents that commit this type of murder does not get criminally penalize.

People in India show a strong preference to not spend time raising girls. The sex birth ratio in India is one of the worst having 112 boys for every 100 girls born. Gill and Mitra-Kahn believe the reason for this lack of girls is due to

India’s statistics are similar. According to the BBC “In 1961, for every 1,000 boys under the age of seven, there were 976 girls. Today, the figure has dropped to a dismal 914 girls. Although the number of women overall is improving (due to factors such as life expectancy), India's ratio of young girls to boys is one of the worst in the world after China. Many factors come into play to explain this: infanticide, abuse and neglect of girl children. But campaigners say the decline is largely due to the increased availability of antenatal sex screening, and they talk of a genocide”.

Female infanticide has been accepted for centuries in many countries, and is more prominent in India and China than in any other countries around the world. It is illegal in India, however it is reported by Unicef that up to 50 million girls and women are “missing” in India as a result of systemic sex discrimination.

In India, women are being manipulated to stop having children after their second birth. Officials claim that by regulating population and the pregnancies of women after their second child they will be able to empower women by offering them contraceptive choices and child care facilities. In reality, if women do not agree to be sterilized after their second birth they will be

It is regrettable that female infanticide and foeticide are rapidly decreasing the female population throughout India. The main factors that is responsible for the increase in the incidence of female infanticide and foeticide is the low status of women, son preference, and the practice of dowry across all casts groups.

Today, 76 percent of the world's people live in countries where induced abortion is legal, at least for health reasons, and 39 percent reside in nations where abortion is available upon request. The procedure is legal in nearly every developed country, and although a majority of developing countries prohibit abortion, 67 percent of the residents of the developing world live in countries where it is permitted at least for health reasons. The other 33 percent-more than one billion people, most of living in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the more strongly fundamentalist Islamic nations-have little of no access to legal induced abortion.