In her new book, Mara Hvistendahl blames the problem of sex selection in Asia on the West. After all, it was the West that created ultrasound and other methods that can determine the sex of a child in the uterus, a process which Asian societies like China have used to pick males over females. In typical fashion, Hvistendahl thinks that everything stems from the West. It is a ridiculous cultural conceit on her part.
The truth is that the single biggest cause of male selection has been the Chinese policy of one child. The Chinese state does not allow families to have more than one child. That law was created by the Chinese government, not the West. It is true that modern technology whose purpose is to promote the health of the mother and child can be used to select the sex of the one child allowed, but that does not make the basic policy the fault of the West. Were China to allow three children per family, it is highly doubtful that many families would select three boys.
In India, there has also been something of a sex selection. Here too, the fault comes from the decline in the birth rate. In India, this decline is the result not of law but of cultural choice. The preference for sons over daughters in India and its neighbors has done the rest.
I suppose that Hvistendahl think that it would be better for the West to deny various pre-natal health methods to women in Asia. The argument, I suppose, is that more deaths during pregnancy and children with birth defects would be better than a surfeit of boys.
Of course, the logical conclusion from all of this is that Asian societies should ban abortion. That would end the sex selection problem.
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