27 Oct Sex-Selection Abortions More than 10 [million] female births in India may have been lost to abortion and sex selection in the past 20 years

 Sex-Selection Abortions More than 10 [million] female births in India may have been lost to abortion and sex selection in the past 20 years, research published in the Lancet has claimed. Researchers in India and Canada said prenatal selection and selective abortion was causing the loss of 500,000 girls a year. Their research was based on a national survey of 1.1 [million] households in 1998. The research, by Prabhat Jha ofSt. Michael’s Hospital at the University of Toronto, Canada, and Rajesh Kumar of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Research in Chandigarh, India, found that there was an increasing tendency to select boys when previous children had been girls. In cases where the preceding child was a girl, the ratio of girls to boys in the next birth was 759 to 1,000. This fell even further when the two preceding children were both girls. Then the ratio for the third child born was just 719 girls to 1,000 boys. However, for a child following the birth of a male child, the gender ratio was roughly equal. Prabhat Jha said conservative estimates in the research suggested half a million girls were being lost each year. “If this practice has been common for most of the past two decades since access to ultrasound became widespread, then a figure of 10 [million] missing female births would not be unreasonable.” In 1994, India banned the use of technology to determine the sex of unborn children and the termination of pregnancies on the basis of gender. Leading campaigners say many of India’s fertility clinics continue to offer a seemingly legitimate facade for a multi-billion-pound racket and that gender determination is still big business in India. However, a top Indian doctors’ association disputed the report. The Indian Medical Association said pre-birth gender checks had waned since a Supreme Court crackdown in 2001 . A spokesman acknowledged that prenatal selections used to take place, but said they were not as widespread as before and that the Lancetreport was exaggerated. “This has not been happening for the past four or five years after strict laws were put in place," the spokesman, Dr. Narendra Saini, said. Other experts say it is impossible that India could have lost 10 [million] females. “If there were half a million feticides a year, the sex ratio would have been very skewed indeed," said Prof. S.C. Gulati of Delhi’s Institute of Economic Growth. Are sex-selection abortions ever justified? is the practice of "female foeticide" a form of discrimination against females? if so, can it ever be morally permissible? Explain your answers. ‘ “india: Dispute over Sex Ratio".

Explain all questions in detail. 1. Explain in why medical professionals should not provide abortions requested by parents who don’t want a specific sex? Then answer questions below 2. Explain why sex-selection abortions should never be justified 3. Is the practice of “female foeticide” a form of discrimination against females? and ifs can it ever be morally permissible