Female Infanticide
Female infanticide is the intentional killing of unborn or newborn female infants and fetuses through the use of sex-selective abortions. It it is most commonly practiced in third world countries and many Asian countries such as China and India. Many impoverished families in many rural areas in Asian countries often terminate a pregnancy or kill a newborn girl in an effort to save the girl form a life of poverty. If this was the reason they kill their children, then why don't they kill boys too? Girls are seen as a finical burden on the family. They can not work to help the family. When they get married, they are no longer part of the family, they are now in the husband’s family. Parents in these rural, undeveloped parts of the world are unwilling to put themselves though a greater finical hardship for their own child. It is the simple fact that these girls are born into societies that hold a much greater societal value on men than women and therefore they are not wroth the struggle for the families so they kill them instead.
The practice of female infanticide is older than many cultures in today’s world, due to the traditional thinking that women are a burden on the family and are seen as less worthy. In many cultures that practice sex- selective abortions, also experience high poverty rates. Therefore many families who are poor want a child that can work to help increase the families overall income and power and women typically can not do contribute to this in these countries. In India when a woman gets married is in no longer apart of the family so unable to help the family. The women's family also has to pay her husband’s family a dowry. A dowry is property or money that is given to the husb...
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...ering the chances of intentional death.
Through the use of sex-selective abortions, child abandonment, and the intentional killing of female infants, female infanticide as accounted millions of missing girls from the world’s population. Female infanticide is the consequence of a strongly implanted, preconceived, idea that women are a financial burden on individual families as well as society as a whole. The large amount of missing women from India and China’s population as lead to a plethora of further social issues, such as human trafficking, higher crime rates, the lack of economic and social growth, and the over population of orphanages. In today's modern world the thought of a child being killed for a reason in which is out of their control, seems outrageous, but the stunning truth is that “It’s a girl” has become the three most deadly worlds in the world.
Sex-selective abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancy based on the predicted sex of the fetus. The selective abortion of female fetuses is most common in areas where cultural norms value male children over female children, especially in parts of Taiwan, Korea, China, and India. A 2005 study estimated that over 90 million females were "missing" from the expected population in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan, South Korea and Taiwan alone, and suggested that sex-selective abortion plays a role in this deficit. India eliminates over half a million healthy girl fetuses annually, simply because of their gender.
“I am not a social worker. I am not a teacher, even. That is my fear, you know, that I really can’t do anything. Helping them to get and education is not going to do anything, but without help they are doomed (Born into Brothels, 2004).” Zana Briski made this statement in her documentary Born into Brothels, referring to the children of sex workers in Sonagachi. This statement exemplifies child saving, a dominant theme in children’s discourse, that portrays children as vulnerable, innocent, and in need of “saving” from poverty and immorality according to a view of a universal childhood (Wells, 2009, pg.28). Child saving efforts remove children from their homes and families and place them in new homes or schools to discursively separate them from their parents (Wells, 2009, pg.28). Therefore, they would have the opportunity to be successful. Saving children based on the western conception of childhood has proved to be ineffective and culturally inappropriate when applied to international circumstances. By examining Zana Briski’s method of saving the children in Sonagachi and reviewing the criticisms of the film, it can be determined that her method of saving the children was unnecessary and contributes to the dominance of western political discourse based on the concept of a universal childhood and what western culture considers to be the “best interests” of the child. This essay will address Briski’s method of saving the children in Sonagachi, explore alternative options to child saving through structural reformation and rights based approaches, and examine how the use of images to save children and the globalization of childhood create political problems on an international scale.
Infanticide is a way to alter the reproductive stream before the child has the status of a real person, which is culturally defined (source). The deaths of weak, illegitimate, excess, deformed and unwanted infants are not defined as murder when the infants have not yet been born into the social world. Infanticide occurs cross-culturally for a multitude of causes. The reasons for infanticide can be summed up into three categories: biological (including the health of the child and twin stigmas), economical (relation to other children, women's workload, and available resources) and cultural (preferred gender, illegitimate children). This essay will examine cross-culturally the biological, economic and cultural factors for infanticide.
Parrot is an expert in cultural practices and the risks encountered in attempting to change them. She is currently writing a book on the topic with Nina Cummings, health educator and victim advocate at Gannett University Health Services at Cornell. Forsaken Figures: The Global Brutalization, Oppression, and Violence against Women catalogues, describes, and analyzes all manner of violence, subjugation, and gendercide against women from a global perspective. Many practices and cultural norms around the world, such as female genital mutilation, sexual slavery, and feticide/infanticide of female babies, are perceived as wrong by outside cultures, Parrot says. She is interested in determining how outside policymakers might begin to address what they see as problems when their own cultural language is vastly different from that of the communities and countries in which the practices are tolerated or even supported.
Recently, a horrendous gang rape and murder case in India has caused many people to speak out against sex crimes. A female medical student was beaten with metal rods, raped, and then thrown from a moving bus by four men. In response, many people have called for stricter laws dealing with sexual violence. This has also lead to some focus on the sex trafficking aspect of sexual violence. In an article by the Editorial Board of the New York Times, issues of enforcement were brought to light by explaining that sex trafficking is growing in India because of extreme poverty, “a gender imbalance resulting from sex-selective abortion practices,” and “India’s affluence.” The writers of “Sex Trafficking in India” adequately argue that in order to solve the issue of sex trafficking there needs to be stricter enforcement of existing laws that deal with sex crimes by appealing to their intended audience through statistics, expert testimonies, cause and effect, and descriptive language.
Abortion is the conclusion of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. It can also happen unconsciously, which is known as a “miscarriage.” For centuries the Church accepted abortion and the law did not punish it. Anti-abortion laws began in the United States in the 19th century and in the 20th century many states banished abortion. Abortion laws have been passed for many reasons such as the concern for women’s health, the need of medical profession, culture and religious fear etc. Laws and court decisions toward abortions have changed and strongly influenced American politics and public opinions over the last 50 years. Even though court decisions are placing severe restrictions on abortions. However, more abortions that America allows, the more it seems to be accepted in today’s society. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the history of abortion, the severe court decisions and the effect on public opinions.
Abortion is a sensitive topic globally, culturally, and socially. There’s more than forty percent of women that end their pregnancy by abortion. In every nation of the world a woman makes the choice for an abortion. Abortion is a procedure that allows a woman to end the life from her pregnancy. There was a time when unsafe abortion was one of the many causes of maternal death. Unsafe abortion went down over the last two decades. When abortion became legal the tragic health issues for women reduced as well as death. There are thirty-six countries willing to allow a woman 's abortion if the female 's life is threatened. Those few countries make the exception depending on her situation of rape, incest, and fetal damage. Now abortion is known as a safe and legal way for a woman to end an unwanted pregnancy. In a woman’s first trimester
Society can influence one to change their appearance, lifestyle, and moral values. But with one person’s detailed research and in-depth analysis of a few major flaws occurring today, victims of society can have a voice in which they can scream sense back into our corrupt lifestyle in our crumbled society. By the time this essay has been read, about (number) (one child for every 2.6 seconds) innocent humans will have the opportunity of life snatched away from them in a brutal and excruciatingly painful way. Society has an amazing ability to create the impression that this process, a morally incorrect and physically harmful action, is not only acceptable but encouraged. This impression has placed enormous pressure on women who are faced with this option, and thus society must take the responsibility to unveil abortion for what it actually is, an act of murder.
In any culture, there is the perception of the pregnancy. Pregnancy is the real indication of the procreation to replace the old generation with the new ones since death is inevitable. But for some unavoidable reasons one may decide not to get pregnant and though she gets pregnant, she may choose not to give birth by carrying out abortion. Abortion has therefore been the most issue of concern globally, the main reason being it denies one’s life. Reasons for carrying out abortion or terminating the pregnancy are varied, and majority carry it for various reasons that many not be known to those not involved, but only the mother sometimes knows even the sire of the child may not be aware. Therefore, various methods have been implemented to create
Adding onto the to the dexterous disposals undergone in order to disencumber themselves from female infants shortly after birth, disdain and bigotry leading to death and sex-selective abortion are other ways by which many female children die each year. These circumstances are most predominant in patriarchal social orders in which females are devalued and a predilection for boys is incorporated within the developmental social ideologies. India is undergoing a female genocide. The primary cause as to why this occurrence does not jostle or provoke global advertence is because it is accomplished through abortion in oppose to killing the females post birth. In India, abortion in itself is a completely legal procedure and the latitudinarian a...
Similarly, the issue of gendercide is seen in the film “It’s a Girl”. Gendercide is not only executed through feticide, but is also present in older, usually married women through dowry and other forms of gender based violence. The film takes place in patriarchally structured India and China, and opens by disclosing the ratio of boys to girls in the world, 105:100, and then specifies that ratio in nations that value male lives, which is 140:100 (0:05). Parents in these nations often kill their young female children, justifying the act by noting that the children will die in one minute (usually via asphyxiation), rather than suffer day by day existing as a woman in a male-privileged society (0:08). When women in India get married, their families
How might the infanticide be seen as a reproductive strategy for males? What would you say if you saw a newspaper article that applied this concept (not the act itself) to human males? Do you think some people would object? Why or why not?
The practice of female infanticide shows how desirable having a male child is that parents would take the lives of a female baby. The dowry system in India is the main cause of female infanticide in India. Gender inequalities in the rural part of northern India exhibit female infanticide occurs here the most despite laws to abolish these acts. Men hold a higher value in this society because a system they adapted many years ago. Men are seen as an asset or of value because at one point his future wife and her family will “pay” for him. Daughters are opposite and viewed as a burden to the family because she will have to marry one day and that will cost her parents. So women are not viewed equally here even as infants, they don’t even stand a chance. Officials have tried to make laws to assist in reducing female infanticide but people have continued to follow traditions of the dowry systems putting the population at risk as well
For the duration of time, society perceives men as superior, which infused to their cultural aspect in life. Society instilled male dominance to the minds of young children, imposing a role each sex must play. Girls are slaves of society, submitting to men as their master. And child brides are a perfect way to exhibit patriarchy society (Ludden). The young girl would be married off to take care of her own family, crippling them in attaining an education and getting a job. Girls were not meant to work (Radu). It is also said that the purpose of marrying off girls young was to keep their attractiveness. Roberta Radu says, “'Virginity is an "asset" that families customarily trade for substantial sums of money, so marriage is arranged as early as possible in order to preserve the girl's "desirability". Out of all of these inducements money was the biggest factor. Parents would arrange their daughter marriage due to poverty. The bride’s family would receive a dowry, basically trading girls for money. Again, girls were burdens and the parents used child marriage as a relief...
Female foeticide has become a disgraceful and shocking reality of this nation. For centuries, families across many parts of India have look upon the male child as the superlative of the two sexes. A male child is seen as a blessing in the Indian society and since years people have made lavish offerings and numerous prayers in hopes for getting a son. These beliefs continue to remain even though times have changed and now much of the inequality is reducing. The Indian society recognizes a insightful faith in every individual’s right to life and dignity but this rights are dishonored when it comes to women and children in this society. A difference in a society’s ideal values and its reality is defined as a social