Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Female infanticide must be brought to an end

GENERALLY AN abortion is the finishing stage of pregnancy before a new birth can take place. The consequence of an abortion is the end of life of a foetus .This death /killing could be either spontaneous or artificial/induced.

The natural abortion is known as a miscarriage. In the artificial abortion, the foetus is removed by artificial methods, usually medical tools. For years, abortion has been an extremely controversial subject. One significant factor of the controversy is whether expecting mother should be allowed by law to have an abortion and if so, under what circumstances. Generally, legal law and moral values speak in favour of it only at the cost of saving the mother’s life or in case of deformation of foetus, otherwise there is strong disagreement on the issue of abortion.
Many advanced countries approve abortion as a legal right of women to have or not to have a child. Some countries like Japan and Russia don’t disapprove the abortion as it can be used as a method of birth control. In Russia, where abortion has been legal since 1920, it is allowed up to the 29th week of pregnancy.

Japan doesn’t restrict abortion to the first 24 weeks. Both Russian and Japanese women are allowed to use abortion as a form of birth control. In other places, such as the Scandinavian countries or the United Kingdom (where abortion has been allowed since 1967) there must be medical reasons. In the United Kingdom, to get an abortion done, it must be shown that continuing the pregnancy would endanger the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.
Recently in 20th century due to medical and technological development sex choice abortions have been rapidly increasing. Preference for sons has lead to female infanticide being commonly practiced in places where sons get more priority over female population. In male dominated society it is a common trend to have son rather than a daughter.

With the help of ultrasound scanning systems, one can easily know the sex of the unborn child. Any type of artificial abortion is simply defined as human killing by sophisticated methods. 

This is actually a sin, which is deliberately done by parents of unborn girl child. According to modern trend only on the knowledge of having female foetus, the chosen method is used to terminate the pregnancy. Such practice of female infanticide is more common not only in India but also in China, Taiwan, Korea, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc.
Social scientists are worried about disproportionate ratio of males and females in population. Due to this many social problems and evils are taking place in society. In India there are many states like Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab etc, where females are only 700 something against every1000 males. Due to this, eligible bachelors are not getting brides. There are many villages in many states, where mothers do not enjoy the pleasure of motherhood of a girl child.
In 2005, more than 90 millions women were calculated to be missing from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Taiwan, Korea and India due to female infanticide. The comparatively economically backward socities like Latin America, Saharan Africa and Caribbean countries do not not indulge in this practice.

Actually female infanticide was not commonly practiced before late 20th century, because of difficulty of determining the sex of unborn child, but now medical tools have made this determination easier. However, prior to this, many parents indulged in female infanticide by feeding poisonous plants, throwing away infants, or strangulating newborn girls at their first breath. This practice of girl child killing was more common in families, where first one or two children were female. Parents of such families did plan, how to finish the next girl child. This brutal practice has made people insensitive.

Somewhat controversially, the same sex-selection practices are also believed to occur among South Asian immigrants in the United States. A study of the 2000 United States Census observed definite male bias in families of Chinese, Korean and Indian immigrants, which was getting increasingly stronger in families where first one or two children were female.
In present materialistic world, where money is playing important role, sons have discarded their parents, while girls being sensitive are much more caring about their parents. Girls are equally participating in economic activities of a family and have achieved higher positions. This brutal practice should be stopped at any cost. Medicos should take moral responsibility and resolve not to indulge in such sinful activities.

Read More >> Pregnancy Tips, Pregnant Woman

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