Aborting Daughters
Daily Mail Online—Thousands of female foetuses have been killed due to gender-based abortion within some ethnic groups, the latest data reveals.
Official figures suggest as many as 4,700 females have disappeared from the latest national census records of England and Wales, raising fears that it indicates the illegal practice of sex-selection abortion has become prevalent in the UK.
Campaigners have reacted with concern to the research, calling for action to stop doctors carrying out these abortions and warning the practice ‘will damage society’.
In many cultures sons are deemed to be more desirable than daughters for religious or economic reasons, meaning couples seek to terminate pregnancies if they find out the child will be female. . . .
The practice is illegal in many other countries, including those where the practice is widespread. In parts of India and China there are now as many as 120 or 140 boys for every 100 girls despite a ban on gender-based abortion.
*Emily Davies, “Thousands of Girls Are Aborted Due to Gender,” DailyMail.com, 14 January 2014, http: //www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2539648/Thousands-girls-aborted-gender-Study-finds-couples-cultures -sons-deemed-desirable-terminating-female-pregnancies.html
Do you think sex-selection abortions are morally permissible? What reasons can you provide to back up your view? Some Chinese parents could argue that such abortions are acceptable on utili-
tarian grounds: Aborting female fetuses prevents economic harm to the family. Is this a good moral argument? Why or why not?
2. Parental Notification
USA Today—Sabrina Holmquist trained as a physician in low-income neighborhoods in the Bronx, N.Y. She says she often saw pregnant teenagers in desperate health and family crises, including some girls who had been abused at home. That, Holmquist says, led her to believe that doctors sometimes should be able to perform abortions on minors without informing a parent.
But in Texas, Linda W. Flower, who practiced obstetrics for two decades, disagrees. She says that in the vast majority of cases in which a teenage girl seeks an abortion, a parent’s guidance is helpful and needed. Flower says she knows of young women who have regretted having abortions.
The doctors’ views reflect the dueling arguments in the first abortion case to come before the Supreme Court in five years: a New Hampshire dispute that tests whether a state may bar physicians from performing an abortion on a girl younger than 18 unless one of her parents has been notified at least 48 hours in advance—even in instances in which the girl faces a health emergency.
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†Joan Biskupic, “High Court Case May Signal Shift on Abortion” From USA Today, February 7, 2006. © 2006 USA Today. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is pro- hibited. www.usatoday.com.
Which doctor do you think is right about parental notification? Under what circumstances, if any, do you think it morally permissible for an under- eighteen girl to have an abortion without notifying
a parent or guardian? when the girl’s life is at stake? when she is a victim of sexual abuse, including incest? Would it be reasonable to require parental notification in all cases without exception?
3. No Abortion to Avert Health Risks
Medical News Today—The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday began considering the appeal of a Polish woman who says that in 2000 she was denied an abortion despite warnings from physicians that she could become blind if she continued the pregnancy, the Scotsman reports (Neighbour, Scotsman, 2/8). Alicja Tysiac—who has three children—alleges that Poland’s abortion law violated her rights under Article 8 and Article 14 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which guarantee “respect for privacy and family life” and “prohibition of discrimination,” respectively. Polish law allows abortion only if a woman has been raped, if there is danger to the life of the woman or if the fetus will have birth defects, according to the Jurist (Onikepe, Jurist, 2/8). The European Court could rule that Tysiac’s rights were violated but cannot mandate that Poland change its abortion laws (Reuters, 2/7).‡
The case, to be heard by the court Wednesday, is the first abortion dispute before the justices since 2000, when they voted 5–4 to strike down Nebraska’s ban on a procedure that critics call “partial birth” abortion because the ban lacked an exception for cases in which the woman’s health was at risk. The new dispute tests whether such a health exception should be required in parental-involvement mandates, which have been passed in various forms by 43 states.†
‡Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, “European Court of Human Rights Considers Appeal of Polish Woman,” published in Medical News Today, February 10, 2006. Copyright © 2005 The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Reprinted with permission.
Should Alicja Tysiac have been permitted an abortion even though her life was not at risk?
Why or why not?
How serious must pregnancy-related health problems be before a risk-lowering abortion is permissible (if ever)?
When such health dangers are involved, why should—or should not—a woman be allowed to decide for herself about whether to have an abortion?