[extropy-chat] Re: sex selection in Asia? (a modest proposal)

Hal Finney hal at finney.org
Fri Oct 8 21:11:09 UTC 2004


The frustrating thing about this phenomenon is how short sighted the
parents seem to be in making these choices.  Do they imagine that they
are the only ones taking steps to make sure their children are boys?
Don't they realize that other people are doing it to?  What kind of
world do they imagine their children growing up in, if there is going
to be a severe imbalance between young men and women?  Don't they care
about their children's welfare?

Now, it's possible that this is a vicious circle; maybe a third-world
nation with an excess of men will actually be worse for the women than
the men.  Western notions of female equality might be shunted aside as
females become increasingly valuable.  In such a world, women might be
victimized and forced into a subservient role as only the most aggressive
and dominant men are able to out-compete other men for the few women.

If you anticipated that this was the world that your child was going to
live in, maybe you would rather have them be a man who faced at worst
a life of frustration, than a woman who might be treated as little more
than a piece of valuable property.

This is pretty speculative, though.  Hopefully the countries involved
will continue to move towards a more respectful attitude towards
women.  My guess is that a natural feedback phenomenon will then occur.
The pendulum will swing, and these Indian and Chinese families will come
to understand the problems with a male-rich world.  They will decide
that girls will actually have an advantage in such a world, and we will
see the ratio swing to equality, or even somewhat in the other direction.

I have confidence that most people want the best thing for their children.
Hopefully this will curb the worst excesses of gender selection and
these nightmare predictions of gender imbalances will never become real.

Hal



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