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India's sex selection doctor jailed

by Stefania Butler (Subscribe to Stefania Butler's posts)
Mar 29th 2006 11:32AM

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Filed under: Your Pregnancy, Health & Safety: Babies, Media, That's Entertainment

From BBC World News comes this report: Dr. Anil Sabhani and his assistant Kartar Singh were caught in a sting operation targeting doctors who reveal the gender of fetuses, and if it's a girl, offer to perform abortions. Indian culture heavily favors boys. Female children have "traditionally been considered inferior and a liability—a bride's dowry can cripple a poor family financially."

The pair have been sentenced to jail for two years for violating India's ban on selective abortions, which has been in place since 1994. According to the report, "it is the first time medical professionals have been jailed in such a case."

Under Indian laws, ultrasound tests on a pregnant woman to determine the gender of the fetus are illegal. It has been estimated that 10 million female fetuses may have been terminated in India in the past 20 years.

[photo credit: BBC/AP]

Tags: cultural bias against girls, CulturalBiasAgainstGirls, india, selective abortion

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