Re: NY Times: Abortion in India Is Tipping Scales Sharply Against girls
From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)
Tue Apr 24 07:35:34 2001
all too common in USA as well - i get the feeling that the most common
genetic karyotypic abnormality among certain ethnic groups is the
presence of the second X chromosome.
art
At Mon, 23 Apr 2001, Joanne Bulley wrote:
>
>To open a new topic - the following is part of an article in yesterday's
>New York Times. I am not surprised - but even so I am indignant over
>the fact that this - and other violence against women - continues. The
>brutality of the human race - be it in actions such as this - the
>Bosnian atrocities - or the brutalities we have in the US - still
>astounds me.
>
>Joanne
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/world/22INDI.html
>April 22, 2001
>
>Abortion in India Is Tipping Scales Sharply Against Girls
>
>By CELIA W. DUGGER
>
>AFFARPUR, India — Here in the northern state of Punjab, couples who
>abort their female fetuses are known as "kudi-maar" — or
>"daughter-killers." The local health worker who lives in this village, a
>kindly woman named Jaswinder Kaur, recently led the way through a maze
>of narrow lanes to the home of one such family.
>
>Gurjit Kaur, 22, said she paid 500 rupees — about $11 — for an
>ultrasound test a year ago, then aborted her pregnancy after a doctor
>told her she was carrying a girl. Now her belly has swelled again, this
>time with the longed-for male child. Her plump face seemed radiant with
>well-being.
>
>"Our elders wanted a boy," she explained. "Boys are important because
>they have to look after all the property."
>
>Though India outlawed sex-determination tests in 1994, their use has
>become commonplace as ultrasound technology — which became available in
>cities during the 1980's — has spread to small towns served by itinerant
>doctors who carry the compact machines from clinic to clinic.
>
>Early figures from the 2001 census, conducted in February and March,
>have made it clear that female fetuses are being
>regularly aborted, continuing a trend that first became marked in the
>1980's. The number of girls per 1,000 boys dropped to 927 this year
>from 945 in 1991 and 962 in 1981.
>
>The fall in the ratio of girls to boys over the past decade, when
>India's population grew by a staggering 181 million, has been most
>extreme in the richest states of the north and west, where more people
>can afford tests and abortions, demographers and economists say.
>
>--
>Joanne Bulley, MD, FACOG
>Keene, NH, USA
>
--
art fougner, md
A series of 1000 cases begins with but a single anecdote.
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