Ultrasounds worsen Asia women shortage: UN

Ultrasounds worsen Asia women shortage: UN

medicalxpress.com

The trend is expected to influence the affected countries for more than 50 years, particularly through a shortage of brides for Chinese and Indian men, according to experts at a conference organised by the UN and Vietnam in Hanoi.
"This skewed population sex ratio reflects a preference for sons, in combination with increasing access to new sex-selection technology" such as ultrasound, the UN Population Fund said in a conference paper.

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I am perpetually at a loss to understand the notion that any society would 'devalue' a person for being born female. The cultures that practice this kind of 'preference' aren't even all patriarchal, which I would have thought would be the case.

Sex determination leads many parents to resort to "selective abortions", said French demographer Christophe Guilmoto.
In most countries the sex ratio at birth ranges from 104 to 106 male births for every 100 females, "but its level has gradually increased over the last 25 years in several Asian countries, particularly in China and India", the UN said.

Apparently, as a result of the use of ultrasound equipment now, there's a 10-18% difference in the birth of boys versus girls. This may have a great impact in the near future. Especially considering the idea that many of these boys will grow into men who will seek a female bride.

South Korea seems to have gotten a grip on the matter and imposed enough public education and social engineering to offset the trend. But then, does that mean that it should be up to governments to decide for people whether they can choose the sex of their child?

One has to wonder about the whole topic as a matter of principle. Presumably the principle is that some cultures have no problem accepting the desire to procreate males over females to the point of terminating pregnancies if they don't "get what they want." I can understand the notion of this being a grave miscarriage of policy as it is applied to the most vulnerable people on the planet... fetuses.

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I always found this notion extremely weird. Fathers getting depressed and annoyed because their wives gave birth to a daughter Females have so many amazing qualities, what makes a male more special (in their eyes)?

117 million down already. Surely, when they're all fighting each other for the few remaining females they'll realize how their ancestors got it wrong and changed their stupid ideology.

reply to post by Maxmars


Yes it is up to governments or counsels of citizens to put limits on this. First of all, don't support abortion for these reasons, but since the first trimester to me is a time period where I don't judge others, as consciosuness begins to develop strongly in the second trimester, this is a problem. I have a hard time discussing this as it relates to abortions, which are not ideal situations by any stretch of the imagination and I consider them murder from the second trimester on, but still something to be greatly thought out before that.

I don't know if they can determine sex in the first trimester either. So this really is murder to me.

Secondly they are only accurate 80%, I have 5 boys, but though they're not allowed to disclose in Canada, I was more or less told it my youngest was a girl. He certainly proved otherwise.

If this is something that could be determined in the first trimester and people were insisting on this, because truly governments or counsels of citizens need to be involved in protecting the lives of the unborn, even if they are merciful in that first portion when the human brain is not developing greatly or functioning.

I think no sex determination should be allowed in the first trimester for the first pregnancy, and probably all, and that no abortions should be performed past 12 weeks preferably 10.

Nature knows best. If it ended up being testube, then there should be half and half, and if you really wanted opposite, you'd have to go on a waiting list, in my books anyway, for a more sci fi world.

reply to post by Ginga


i think its the asian mind set that daughters are married off and start there own branch of the family tree where as over there the males are the ones who take care of the elderly and are responsible for the carrying on of the family name and whatnot not saying i agree with it at all but just trying to put my persepective on it

reply to post by Maxmars


But..... on the upside....... there is an influx of beautiful Asian girls being adopted by American families and raised here! There is also the response of mother nature, where statistics show an increasing birthrate for females in Western Countries, while male births have remained steady or decreased. So, more girl to guy ratio from adoption and birth rates!! We might have to legalize polygamy afterall!

And, as racist as it may sound (I feel comfortable saying it, because Chinese men are the absolute most racist around), there is not a lot of competition for Western Women from Chinese men. They just aren't packing the same equipment, and unless they are a rich, techie genius, or a ninja, they don't really attract the women.

So, more Asian women, more Western women, and the extra Chinese men aren't much competition. Win-Win-Win for Western Men!!

Originally posted by KilrathiLG
reply to post by Ginga

 

i think its the asian mind set that daughters are married off and start there own branch of the family tree where as over there the males are the ones who take care of the elderly and are responsible for the carrying on of the family name and whatnot not saying i agree with it at all but just trying to put my persepective on it

well... you are sort of right, from my understanding in chinese culture the daughters are married off and they are no longer part of that family.
they are part of another family now the one they married into. so they have no worth to the family they come from, unlike sons who stay part of the family, hence why they abort females.
they need to change that part of their culture or they will in 20-30 years drop to an unsustainable level, they are already worried about it since the population is getting older and the pool of young people is shrinking.
amazing for a country boasting a billion people..

i didn't realize india also had that problem, i thought only china had a population issue because of their family divisions.

this is going to come back to haunt asian countries the preference for males over females

20 to 50 years they are going to see a dramatic population decrease never seen the logic of wanting a boy over a girl after all a child is a child.

reply to post by Maxmars


There one child policy has given rise to a new problem too...

WASHINGTON—North Korean women who cross the border into China fleeing hunger and repression in their homeland frequently fall victim to human traffickers who sell them to Chinese men in search of wives, a U.S.-based rights group said Thursday, calling on China to stop repatriating the women and grant them legal protection.

it's not just Korean women either Trafficking of women is not uncommon in Nabang. The town overlaps China's border with Burma. Thousands of women enter China every year, hoping for a job, only to find themselves forced into this market for brides

It will definitely have the impact of unbalancing the gender numbers, but look at it this way, eventually, men will outnumber women by such a great number, that female babies will become the desire and things will flip flop. Hopefully they will learn SOMETHING from it all.

I guess birth and population control really isn't in the interest of feminism.

Another line

reply to post by getreadyalready


I don't know where that trait is here in AUS.

We've been pregnant 4 times, the first 3, Boys, the newest one still TBC (November).

It's crazy people are choosing the sex. It's truly sad and shows what happens when we have too much control.

reply to post by LightAssassin

In China most parents are banned from having more than one child.

It's not when people have too much control, it's when government has too much control.

reply to post by Maxmars


In the population-stressed countries, it is a form of birth control that will bring the population down and provide a lot of young men for the military or industry while providing more resources. The humanistic side of it is not within the domain of regimes that have an agenda.

reply to post by LightAssassin




I have 2 boys myself! At least they will have their pick of women in the upcoming years. It is nice to be outnumbered by the opposite sex!

Originally posted by Maxmars
I am perpetually at a loss to understand the notion that any society would 'devalue' a person for being born female. The cultures that practice this kind of 'preference' aren't even all patriarchal, which I would have thought would be the case.

While I certainly don't condone it, I am not at a loss to understand it at all. I'm not defending it or saying its right...clearly it isn't. But there is strong logic to it.

In the developing world, people have a less sentemental view of parenthood. Boys are often valued becasue traditionally they care for the elderly parents. They also provide more muscelpower for labor in farmwork or other manual tasks. Meanwhile, girls are something that cost a lot to feed and clothe and bring up, and then they go away to the in-laws and don't usually support their parents in such societies. Employment opportunities for women in traditional cultures are limited or non-existant, so they can't bring in money for the family. In harsh places where survival is always in question, bringing up a boy represents an investment in your own future, which will pay back in the form of hard manual labor and support in your old age. A girl is a "sunk cost" that you must put money into but which will leave you and not return much or any money.

Like I said, it isn't right, but it is crystal clear to me why people in those cultures think this way.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by Maxmars

 

So, more Asian women, more Western women, and the extra Chinese men aren't much competition. Win-Win-Win for Western Men!!

suits me .......they don't mind men with a bit of...um.....maturity...

What do you expect.? Men are bigger stronger and smarter than women. It's a man's world and always will be so naturally parents are gonna choose boys. Why handicap your own kids.

I hadn't thought about it before, but I wonder if somehow the male to female ratio unbalance has a more sinister twist to it. Maybe it's possible that the benefit of having the population at large subscribe to only wanting male children will serve in depopulation over the long term without the necessity of enacting some sort of genocide. Results would be seen fairly quickly (1-2 generations).