About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


14 Duke J. Gender L. & Pol'y 1289 (2007)
A Right to Choose: Sex Selection in the International Context

handle is hein.journals/djglp14 and id is 1293 raw text is: A RIGHT TO CHOOSE?: SEX SELECTION IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT ASHLEY BUMGARNER* INTRODUCTION Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) has been used in the United States and around the world for decades to help women become pregnant, most commonly through in vitro fertilization (IVF)-the transfer of fertilized human embryos into a woman's uterus. The ethical issues surrounding in vitro fertilization have received considerable treatment in existing scholarship. As ART advances, however, so does the bioethical debate. Innovations such as sperm sorting and Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) now offer would- be parents the opportunity to select prenatally the sex of their offspring. Sex selection is the practice of using medical techniques to choose the sex of one's offspring. These techniques include sperm sorting, PGD, and selective abortion. Selective abortion in particular has led to national crises in India and China. In India, the desire for male heirs has created an explosion in the number of clinics that use ultrasound to determine the sex of a fetus and in physicians who perform sex-selective abortions According to a study by The Lancet, a premier British medical journal, sex selection claims up to 500,000 female fetuses in India every year.2 Since ultrasound machines were first introduced into India in 1979, an estimated ten million female fetuses have been aborted.3 In China, the problem is particularly acute. According to official figures, approximately 119 boys are born for every 100 girls. Selective abortion in China * J.D., Duke University School of Law, expected May 2007; B.A., History and Political Science, Wake Forest University, 2004. I would like to thank Elizabeth S. McBrearty, Robert J. Needham, Michael M. Oswalt, Rita B. Trivedi, Ryan S. Higgins, and Justin T. Wilson for their invaluable editorial assistance. I would also like to thank the Wake Forest University Women's and Gender Studies department for encouraging my passion for women's issues, and my husband, Scott Killian, for his continuing support. 1. Neil Samson Katz, Abortion in India: Selecting by Gender, WASH. POST, May 20, 2006, at B09. For a discussion of the motivations underlying sex selection in China and India, see Part ILA, infra. 2. Scott Baldauf, India's Girl Deficit Deepest Among Educated, CHRISTIAN ScI. MONIToR, Jan. 13, 2006, World, at 1, available at http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0113/pOlsO4-wosc.html. 3. Id. 4. Simon Parry, Shortage of Girls Causes China to Criminalise Selective Abortion, TELEGRAPH (London) (online ed.), Sept. 1, 2005, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/ 2005/01/09/wchinaO9.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/01/09/ixworld.html. In traditional Chinese culture, male offspring are more desirable than female offspring because sons provide for parents in old age, while daughters become part of their husband's family. Id. 1289