Indian Government to sanction 100 doctors for selective abortion
February 19, 2013: India's central government has identified about a hundred doctors
who will be sanctioned for carrying out selective abortions and female foeticides
in the country.
The Health Ministry sent the Medical Council of India a list
of doctors who violated the 1994 Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques
Act, which bans prenatal sex determination tests and imposes sentences of six months
to five years on violators, plus the suspension or cancellation of their medical license.
This
is a positive step, Dr Pascoal Carvalho, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life,
told AsiaNews, because "using strong deterrence measures can help prevent similar
forms of discrimination and punish the guilty."
According to the Children
in India 2012: A Statistical Appraisal, a study released by the Ministry of
Statistics and Programme Implementation, at least three million girls were missing
in 2011 as a result of selective abortions and female foeticide.
"This loss
will have serious moral, social and economic consequences," said Dr Carvalho. "Choosing
the sex [of newborns] is an expression of the lack of respect for women, and one of
the causes of rising crimes against them." Sadly, "in India, boys are preferred to
girls for cultural reasons and this is connected to economic factors," he explained.
Traditionally,
girls are educated and raised to become wives, but they can get married only if they
bring a dowry (money, jewels and various material goods). Even when they get married,
women have to give birth to a boy to earn respect.
In addition, in some regions
of India, the practice of sati still occurs, whereby widows are expected to throw
themselves on their husbands' funeral pyre. Hindu tradition requires women to show
devotion to their dead husbands through voluntary self-immolation, a practice that
allows families to rid themselves of women who have become an economic burden.
A
widespread 'culture of death' underlies "selective abortions and female foeticides,"
Dr Carvalho noted. "The Catholic Church instead promotes a culture of life through
its educational and health ministries. This way, it protects the life and dignity
of girls as well as defends, values and encourage young women and opposes all forms
of discrimination and violation of their rights."
What is more and contrary
to widespread belief, selective abortion and female foeticide are also commonplace
among middle and upper class Indians. "A study titled Skewed Sex Rations in India:
Physician, Heal Thyself found that there are more boys than girls in the families
of medical doctors," Dr Carvalho noted.