CIENCIASMEDICASNEWS: BioEdge: Gendercide becomes an issue in Canada

domingo, 17 de abril de 2016

BioEdge: Gendercide becomes an issue in Canada

Gendercide becomes an issue in Canada

by Michael Cook | 16 Apr 2016 |

The problem of gendercide has spread from India to Canada, researchers claim in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). A statistical analysis of births in Ontario found that the male-to-female sex ratio at birth -- which ranges between 1.03 to 1.07 naturally -- is as high as 1.96 if an Indian-born woman already had two daughters.

The researchers believe that over the past 20 years, there are 4,472 “missing” girls in Canada as a result of a preference for males amongst Indian immigrants. This happens mostly when both parents were born in India.

Researchers looked at data on more than 1.2 million births in women with having a third child in Ontario between 1993 and 2012. Of these, 153,829 (12.6%) were immigrant women from Asia.

Among women born in India who already had two girls, the ratio of male to female babies for the third birth was almost double the average, with 196 boys born for every 100 girls. If an Indian-born mother with two daughters had had an abortion before the third child, the sex ratio increased to 326 boys for every 100 girls and to 409 boys if the mother had had multiple abortions.

If a woman had an abortion at or after 15 weeks, when ultrasound can determine sex of the fetus, the sex ratio rose further, to 663 boys for every 100 girls.

"Among some Indian immigrants, the practice of induced abortions is associated with subsequently having a boy, especially at the third birth and among women with two previous girls," says Dr Marcelo Urquia, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario.

Birth ratios fell within the natural range for Canadian-born women and immigrant women from most other countries.

Previous studies of male-female birth ratios have relied on indirect evidence, and most have not considered the sex of the existing siblings or the number of abortions as factors.

In a related commentary, Drs Abdool Yasseen and Thierry Lacaze-Masmonteil, from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Ontario, write, "The real question is not whether the practice of prenatal sex selection exists -- it is clear from the results of this study and numerous others that it does -- but why this practice persists, particularly in a Canadian society that espouses sex equality."

One problem is that Canada has no law on abortion at all. Professional associations frown on the use of ultrasound to detect the sex of a foetus and sex-selective abortions, but they have no power to stop them.

Amrita Mishra, project director of the Indo-Canadian Women’s Association in Edmonton, told the Globe and Mail that “existing legal loopholes allow anyone to use abortion for infant sex selection. I see Canada as enabling as such practices. And I refuse to have this turn into an Indian issue that’s been imported like vegetables or fruit into Canada.”

She would like to see a law against sex-selective abortion. “When one says Indians or Chinese, Koreans or Philippines have brought this problem to a country, we really need to take a good solid look at ourselves and ask ourselves what are the laws in this country that allow this to happen?” she said.

- See more at: http://www.bioedge.org/bioethics/gendercide-becomes-an-issue-in-canada/11833#sthash.NaeYhRIC.dpuf

Former Austraiian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who is now 86, has publicly backed euthanasia, even for teenagers. He says that he fears the indignity of "losing his marbles" -- something he is trying to keep at bay with crosswords and suduko. He told euthanasia activist Andrew Denton that his second wife, Blanche d'Alpuget, will know what to do if he ever reaches that stage.

Acting as a poster boy for euthanasia is a sad end to a distinguished career. But it is, in a way, understandable. Dementia must be terrifying for people without adequate family support because of fractured relationships. And Mr Hawke, sadly, fractured his in a very public way by divorcing his first wife Hazel, who had been his spouse when he was Prime Minister, to marry his biographer, Ms d'Alpuget.

Hazel went on to be one of the most respected and best-loved women in public life in Australia. People praised her honesty and courage when she admitted that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She even published a book about it. Eventually she had to enter a nursing home where she lived for four years before her death. Mr Hawke was not there to help her.

For all of his intelligence and charm, Bob Hawke is wrong about euthanasia. Dementia is a disability and a civilised society does not solve the problem of disability by killing the disabled. The real indignity comes when the "abled" neglect their responsibility to care for the weak and vulnerable