Letters to the Editor

Saved, or sacrificed? Infanticide and abortion of female fetuses remain major problems in India, but some parents believe they're sparing their daughters lives of hardship. Carol Lloyd [2006-12-14]

• An old saying...

  if you want to change a man, you have to start with his grandmother.

  Yes, we can wring our hands all day about the deplorable practice of female sex selective abortion. But as many posters have pointed out, this goes back to some deep cultural and economic reasons. If I knew that having a boy would ensure that I would not starve in my old age, perhaps I'd be tempted to abort a female fetus too. I can't say until I've walked a mile in their shoes.

  These kinds of cultural practices change extremely slowly, over many generations. For us to sit on our privileged behinds in the west and say "thou shalt not" is not very helpful. I'd rather have those female fetuses aborted than to have female live birth babies murdered in some of the horrific ways mentioned in this article.

  As more women in India and China gain college educations (and they are), as more women obtain the means to support themselves, this kind of thinking will slowly die out. But for us to think we can "do something" about a cultural practice (extended families living with adult sons) that we have little understanding of, from halfway across the globe, is about as useful as us trying to impose one-vote democracy on a tribal society (Iraq, anyone?).

  This is a case of modern technology having an unintended effect on a centuries old culture. We can't put the technology genie back in the bottle, and we can't change a centuries old culture that emphasizes taking care of elders. We do a remarkably poor job of taking care of our own elderly population.

  -- KMR
  Permalink Flag Friday, December 15, 2006 02:47 PM
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