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CHAPTER 8. THE ETHICS OF PRENATAL DIAGNOSIS FOR SEX SELECTION
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CHAPTER 8 THE ETHICS OF PRENATAL DIAGNOSIS FOR SEX SELECTION THE BOY-GIRL TEST In a typical Indian household, a mother of two daughters is very happy when she knows she is going to have a son. It could mean an end to taunts of her mother-in-law and neighbors. She will gain “honor” by having a boy. The pregnant woman is certain this time around it is a boy, because she has had an amniocentesis test, popularly known as “the boy-girl test.” Though it is clinically intended to detect congenital deformities, the test is socially employed as a means for sex selection. The procedure involves the withdrawal by a long hypodermic needle of a small sample of the amniotic fluid that bathes the fetus in the womb. The fluid contains cells that have flaked off the fetus. The chromosomes in these cells can be examined for evidence of birth defects, but they also tell the sex of the fetus. The test is totally accurate, but costs thousands of rupees. A second sex discrimination test is ultrasound. The machine takes a picture of the fetus in the sixteenth week of pregnancy, which tells the sex of the child. It is not completely accurate, but costs much less. In the event that the test proves “negative”—meaning another girl— there is a strong likelihood that a family with two daughters will opt for an abortion. Seema Sirohi reports: “There are no definite numbers on how many abortions occur after such tests. One authoritative study said 78,000 female fetuses were aborted from 1978 to 1983 nationwide following sexdiscrimination tests.”1 Crawford: Hindu Bioethics page 142 Crawford 113-198-226 8/21/03 11:36 AM Page 142 Doctors who run the lucrative businesses say it is better to abort a female fetus than to subject an unwanted child to a life of suffering. In the opinion of one doctor who runs New Delhi’s most popular boy-girl testing clinic: “People are willing to keep producing children until they get a son. Tell me, is it not better to let them have a chance so they don’t have six daughters before they have a son? Either you should educate the masses that there is no difference between sons and daughters or give them a choice. This test, in fact, is helping the population-control program of the government.”2 For the masses, there is indeed a “difference between sons and daughters .” In India sons are looked upon as potential wage earners, as support for parents in old age, and as performers of rituals for ancestors. On the other hand, multiple daughters can pose as financial liabilities, especially when it comes to marriage expenses. A developing consumer society has increased demands for dowry, from the traditional jewelry to cars, refrigerators, even houses. According to Sundari Nanda, head of the New Delhi police department’s Crime Against Women Cell: “We are becoming a very materialistic and consumer-driven society. For such a society, dowry becomes a way of betterment for those in the process of climbing up.”3 In India’s rush to embrace modernity, the demand for dowry has become a lever for extorting money and goods from a bride’s family for years after the wedding. If her family does not comply, she frequently is subjected to cruelty, physical abuse, and often death. Police say reported dowry deaths have increased 170 percent nationwide in the last decade, with 6,200 recorded in 1994—an average of 17 married women burned, poisoned, strangled, or otherwise killed each day because of their family’s failure to meet the dowry demands of the husband’s family.4 More recently, The Hindustan Times reports “Dowryrelated violence claims 5,000 victims every year.”5 It is commonly believed that the statistics represent only a fraction of the actual cases believed to have been committed. They also do not include the tens of thousands of incidents of nonfatal dowry harassment and physical and mental abuse inflicted on wives by husbands and in-laws. Hindu bioethcs finds the prenatal sex discrimination tests a perverted use of modern science. It is a scarcely concealed form of female feticide. It is the employment of modern technology to perpetuate ancient social prejudices against women. Crawford: Hindu Bioethics page 143 The Ethics of Prenatal Diagnosis for Sex Selection 143 Crawford 113-198-226 8/21/03 11:36 AM Page 143 [3.17.28.48] Project MUSE...