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Not by itself, but there's strong economic incentive for your one child to be a boy rather than a girl.
by arockwell 18y ago
Not by itself, but there's strong economic incentive for your one child to be a boy rather than a girl.
- eru 18y agoTo say it bluntly: Sometimes girls are neglected until they die or killed outright.
- gruseom 18y agoRight. And to call this "single child policy" is a nasty euphemism.
- netcan 18y agoI think selective abortion is more common then selective infanticide.
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y agoAbandonment is common too. My sister worked part-time in an orphanage in Xian for a year and saw a lot of sad things.
- gruseom 18y agoPeople who kill their own daughters for "economic" reasons stretch my ability to be non-judgmental.
- asdflkj 18y agoInfanticide for "economic" reasons is an evolutionary adaptation common in many mammals, including humans, including in rich societies. In the US, it usually gets classified as SIDS. I'm yet to see a convincing argument for why it's unethical.
- pmorici 18y agoIsn't SIDS when a baby suffocates because they are sleeping on their stomach or in a room with poor ventilation? Or are you saying it isn't as sudden and accidental as we are led to believe?
- asdflkj 18y agoNot always accidental, apparently. Wikipedia has references.
- DabAsteroid 18y agoAlso, in the Netherlands, child euthanasia is openly practiced. http://www.google.com/search?q=netherlands+euthanasia+child http://www.google.com/search?q=netherlands+euthanasia+child 280,000 hits.
- DabAsteroid 18y agoDo you judge sexual abstainers? http://www.google.com/search?q=%22abstinence+is+murder%22 http://www.google.com/search?q=%22abstinence+is+murder%22
- emmett 18y agoActually, that's incorrect. There's a strong social prestige incentive for your one child to be a boy rather than a girl. There's a strong economic incentive for you to have a girl: there's a tradition of reversed dowries in China, and girls are rare, so the benefits are high.
- arockwell 18y agoI thought the reason they wanted boys was that they were the ones who had the means to support their parents in old age?
- emmett 18y agoPerhaps that was the historical reason boys are high prestige, but modern China has huge opportunities for women (who "Hold up half the sky", as Mao put it). China was a society of prima genitor, like Europe; boys are high prestige because they carry on your family name. All praise to the eldest son!