Editing Sex-selective abortion (section)

==== Cultural preference ====
[[File:Burying Babies in China (p.40, March 1865, XXII).jpg|thumb|200px|Burying Babies in China (p.40, March 1865, XXII). There is a long tradition of [[female infanticide in China]].<ref name=Offering1865>{{cite journal|title=Burying Babies in China|journal=Wesleyan Juvenile Offering|date=March 1865|volume=XXII|pages=40|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1VwEAAAAQAAJ|access-date=December 1, 2015|archive-date=April 11, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240411212316/https://books.google.com/books?id=1VwEAAAAQAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
[[File:Infanticide-ganges.jpg|thumb|200px|Infanticide committed by throwing an infant into the [[Ganges river]]]]
The reason for intensifying sex-selection abortion in China and India can be seen through history and cultural background. Generally, before the [[information era]], male babies were preferred because they provided manual labor and continuation of the family [[Lineage (anthropology)|lineage]]. Labor is still important in developing nations as China and India, but when it comes to family lineage, it is of great importance.

The selective abortion of female fetuses is most common in areas where cultural norms value male children over female children for a variety of social and economic reasons.<ref name="Goodkind_1999" /> A son is often preferred as an "asset" since he can earn and support the family; a daughter is a "liability" since she will be married off to another family, and so will not contribute financially to her parents. Sex selective female abortion is a continuation, in a different form, of a practice of [[female infanticide]] or withholding of postnatal health care for girls in certain households.<ref name="Gupta_2005">{{cite journal | vauthors = Gupta MD | title = Explaining Asia's "missing women": a new look at the data. | journal = Population and Development Review | date = September 2005 | volume = 31 | issue = 3 | pages = 529–535 | doi = 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2005.00082.x }}</ref> Furthermore, in some cultures sons are expected to take care of their parents in their old age.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Mahalingam R | title = Culture, ecology, and beliefs about gender in son preference caste groups | doi = 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.01.004 | journal = Evolution and Human Behavior | volume = 28 | issue = 5 | pages = 319–329 | year = 2007 | bibcode = 2007EHumB..28..319M }}</ref> These factors are complicated by the effect of diseases on child sex ratio, where communicable and noncommunicable diseases affect males and females differently.<ref name="Gupta_2005" /> In parts of India and Pakistan, there are social norms such as [[purdah]], which stipulate that female seclusion and confinement to the home is necessary. Such practices are prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities in South Asia. When females interact with men, or are believed to do so, the "[[family honor]]" is tarnished.

Historically, in many South Asian populations, women were allocated a very low status, evidenced through practices such as [[Sati (practice)|sati]], an ancient funeral custom where a [[widow]] immolated herself on her husband's [[pyre]] or committed [[suicide]] in another fashion shortly after her husband's death.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1017/S1060150300004678 |jstor=25058378 |title=The Sati, the Bride, and the Widow: Sacrificial Woman in the Nineteenth Century |journal=Victorian Literature and Culture |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=141–158 |year=1997 | vauthors = Gilmartin S |s2cid=162954709 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Sharma A |title=Sati: historical and phenomenological essays |date=1988 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |location=Delhi |isbn=978-8120804647 |edition=1st | pages = 19–21 }}</ref><ref name=julialeslie>On attested Rajput practice of sati during wars, see, for example {{cite book| vauthors = Leslie J |chapter=Suttee or Sati: Victim or Victor?|page=46|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vPdYkFguJ8IC&pg=PA46 | veditors = Arnold D, Robb PG |title=Institutions and Ideologies: A SOAS South Asia Reader|year=1993 |publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-7007-0284-8|volume=10}}</ref> Such societies, in placing almost no value on females, encouraged parents to commit [[infanticide]] of girls or to abandon them. The modern practice of sex-selective abortion is therefore a continuation of other historical practices. During the 19th century, in the Northwest [[British raj|British India]], one-fourth of the population preserved only half the daughters, while other 3/4th of the population had balanced sex ratio. There were 118 males per 100 females. This is comparable to the contemporary sex ratio in the area, now divided between India and Pakistan.<ref>{{cite book|title = Child Survival: Anthropological Perspectives on the Treatment and Maltreatment of Children| vauthors = Hughes NS |publisher = Springer|isbn = 978-1-55608-028-9|year = 1987|page = 99}}</ref>

[[Chinese culture]] is deeply patriarchal. Pre-modern Chinese society was predominantly patriarchal and patrilineal from at least the 11th century BC onwards.<ref>{{cite journal | title=周代男女角色定位及其对现代社会的影响 | trans-title=Role orientation of men and women in the Zhou Dynasty and their effects on modern society | vauthors = Wu X | pages=86–92 | language=zh | journal=Chang'An Daxue Xuebao (Shehui Kexue Ban) | date=2009 | volume=11 | issue=3 }}</ref> There has long been a son preference in China, leading to high rates of female infanticide, as well as a strong tradition of restricting the [[freedom of movement]] of women, particularly upper-class women, manifested through the practice of [[foot binding]]. Although the legal and social standing of women have greatly improved in the 20th century, son preference remains still strong, and the situation was aggravated by the [[one child policy]].

Interpretations of [[Confucianism]] have been argued to contribute to the low status of women. The gender roles prescribed in the [[Three Obediences and Four Virtues]] became a cornerstone of the family, and thus, societal stability. Starting from the Han period, Confucians began to teach that a virtuous woman was supposed to follow the males in her family: the father before her marriage, the husband after she marries, and her sons in widowhood. In the later dynasties, more emphasis was placed on the virtue of chastity. The Song dynasty Confucian [[Cheng Yi (philosopher)|Cheng Yi]] stated that: "To starve to death is a small matter, but to lose one's chastity is a great matter."<ref name="ebrey">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GDPskRXfl5cC&pg=PA10 |title=Women and the Family in Chinese History |author=Patricia Buckley Ebrey |pages=10–12 |publisher=Routledge |date=September 19, 2002 |isbn=978-0-415-28822-4 |access-date=December 18, 2017 |archive-date=April 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240411212314/https://books.google.com/books?id=GDPskRXfl5cC&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> The "cult of chastity" accordingly, condemned many widows to poverty and loneliness by placing a [[social stigma]] on remarriage.<ref name=Adler>{{cite web | vauthors = Adler JA | title = Daughter/Wife/Mother or Sage/Immortal/Bodhisattva? Women in the Teaching of Chinese Religions | work = ASIANetwork Exchange, vol. XIV, no. 2 | date = Winter 2006 | url = http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Women.htm | access-date = May 18, 2011 | archive-date = March 20, 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060320105840/http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Writings/Women.htm | url-status = live }}</ref>

In modern East Asia, a large part of the pattern of preferences leading to this practice can be condensed simply as a desire to have a male heir. Monica Das Gupta (2005) observes, from 1989 birth data for China, there was no evidence of selective abortion of female fetuses among firstborn children. However, there was a strong preference for a boy if the first born was a girl.<ref name="Gupta_2005" />