On Feb 27, 2012, at 3:27 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:
> Shane writes:
>
> " From a social point of view, in an (at present) grossly
> overpopulated
> country like India suffering from an (at present) grossly excessive
> rate of population growth, female-selective abortion is by far and
> away the most practical way by which the people, on their own, can
> deal with that problem (given the fertility rate, the rate of
> population growth is a monotonic function of the reproductive-age sex
> ratio).
>
> Male homosexuality, socially considered, is the proper response to the
> excess of reproductive-age males in any primate society where
> population limitation imposes a surplus of males or where younger
> males remain in the social group but cannot compete with the stronger
> adult males for the available females."
>
> Well, uh, no.
> The most practical way for the people to deal with the problem is
> contraception.
The Gandhis tried compulsory male sterilization. It exploded in their faces. In the conditions of generalized poverty that prevail and will continue indefinitely to prevail for the great mass of Indians contraception is totally impractical.
> And, besides, they don't kill female children to hold down
> population. They kill female foetuses/children because women are a
> drain on family finances because of doweries and because once the
> female is grown and married she is only a financial asset to her
> husband's family.
Undoubtedly many women who selectively abort female fetuses do so for that reason, which under Indian conditions (not about to change short of thoroughgoing social revolution plus Chinese-type improvement in living standards) makes perfect sense. Anyway, population control is not a reason any sane woman would consider aborting. As a social choice it is the resultant from tens of millions of individual decisions.
When a woman makes a choice that she believes is best for her and that in fact is best for her society, what right has anyone to denounce her choice as "abhorrent?" Shane Mage
"L'après-vie, c'est une auberge espagnole. L'on n'y trouve que ce qu'on a apporté."
Bardo Thodol