Gendercide
Gendercide is defined as the systematic killing of a specific sex (usually females). This is a large issue in places like India and China with women being forced, or willingly, having abortions or their newborn baby is killed because it's gender is female. A huge problem with gendercide is that if they keep killing females eventually there will not be enough women to reproduce with the males in future generations.
An important question to ask would be that would it be better for these female children to be aborted or killed at birth or live a life of neglect being abandoned by their own families?
Although they would be alive they would either be abandoned or neglected and would have a high chance of death throughout their lives.
First of all, this is a really powerful post. Although I had heard about controlling birth rates and the abandonment of female children, I had not realized how commonplace it was in those cultures to murder their own child because it is simply accepted as the normal reaction to the birth of a female. I agree that women should be better educated on birth control options and that they should be made more available. Without the birth control, it is somewhat understandable (not saying that killing the children is the right way to go about it) for the government to turn a blind eye to this infanticide because they will simply be unable to support such a vast population with such a high birth rate. Of course, with birth control options, this could be avoided. I also think that more adoption options should be available. Although there is a concern that children adopted from outside the country will not be given a childhood/upbringing true to the culture of their biological parents, they will at least be safe and loved. Wait lists for adoptions can be years long, but many eager parents would be glad to shorten that wait. Also, I know many people who specifically adopt from China where there is a surplus of babies, especially females, up for adoption. I, however, did not realize the equal intensity of the situation in India. I was prepared to play Devil's advocate before the last paragraph of this post, discussing the importance of males in continuing the family, but I did not realize how great the difference between males and females in China had become. If it is getting to the point where some males aren't even able to find a wife to have children with, then this seems like a hopeless measure. How are parents going to ensure that their grandkids carry on their name if they don't have any in the first place?
ReplyDelete- lv11op
I agree with the main idea, as well as the individual segments of this blog entirely. I had previously known that this was an ongoing issue, especially in China. However, after reading this, and seeing how prominent theses numbers actually are, it is clear that this is more than just an “issue”. This is an absolute devastation that needs to be changed. I agree with the statement that it is alarming to see how normal this seems to them. This is something that is absolutely unacceptable in our society, yet seems to be a natural occurrence in these countries. Carrying the family name, or inhibiting wealth seems to be more important than the own human life that they’ve created. I agree that more information on birth control and safe sex should be provided, but more importantly, the ideology of the entire situation. Although safe sex practices could potentially lower the number of deaths, it still does nothing towards gender quality. The point that must be recognized is that a baby girl and a baby boy are completely equal beings, and that it is highly unethical to kill a helpless infant simply based on their gender. As mentioned, it is interesting to wonder whether or not these countries realize the complications of the unbalanced populations they will most certainly experience in the future.
ReplyDelete-kc12uj
Your post significantly helped shed light on this issue, as I was not aware that gendercide was present in other countries due to the fact that this is does not occur in our Westernized society. I did not realize some countries such as India and China target female babies and have them killed as they believe they are a burden, and their countries favour males due to associating them with wealth. Not only is it wrong that innocent children are being killed, it is exceptionally wrong that innocent baby girls are being killed strictly due to their gender. Being a girl is looked at as the “wrong” gender in these societies, and is not wanted in these cultures. I definitely agree with the fact that education on pregnancy and birth control should be distributed to these societies in order to control the number of births and reduce the number of female infants being killed. In the video you posted, the mother mentioned she had killed eight baby girls due to her continuously becoming pregnant and not having one boy. This seems very wrong, and birth control methods should be distributed in order to control the number of deaths upon innocent baby girls. It is bizarre to think that individuals in these societies view this as completely normal, and have no issue with killing a life that they have created themselves due to the baby being the gender of a girl. Gender equality should be enforced within these societies, as an infant of either a boy or a girl should be given equal treatment, and one should not be favoured over the other.
ReplyDeletedl10if