By
Dave Andrusko
"Demographers say the statistical deviation
among Asian-American families is significant,
and they believe it reflects not only a
preference for male children, but a growing
tendency for these families to embrace
sex-selection techniques, like in vitro
fertilization and sperm sorting, or abortion."
From "Hint at Bias for Boys in Some Asians," which ran
in Monday's New York Times.
Last month when Oklahoma passed a
comprehensive abortion-reporting measure, part
of HB 1595 was a prohibition against
sex-selection abortions
people were blown away by this,' said Prof. Lena
Edlund of Columbia University."
The story is not based on anecdotal evidence
but hard, grounded research. Roberts cites two
studies.
One is by Edlund and a colleague, Prof.
Douglas Almond, which studied 2000 census data.
It was published last year in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences The second
was published this year by University of Texas
economist, Prof. Jason Abrevaya.
Edlund and Almond found that among American
families of Chinese, Korean, and Indian descent,
if the first child was a girl there was a
noticeable likelihood the second child would be
a boy. To be specific 1.17 to 1.
But if the first two children were girls, the
ratio for the third child was 50% higher (1.51
to 1) in favor of boys.
By and large, the sources cited in the story
chose not to ring the alarm bell. You'd expect
that from the Fertility Institutes, which,
according to Roberts, is "a California clinic
that began sex-selection procedures in New York
in March."
The Fertility Institutes, we're told, does
not offer abortions, but "has unabashedly
advertised its services in Indian- and
Chinese-language newspapers in the United
States."
Says Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, medical director
of The Fertility Institutes, "The patients come
in and they all think they owe me an excuse, but
the bottom line is it's cultural."
In one of the great missing-the-point
comments of recent times, Steinberg tells the
Times, "Whether we agree with it, it's not
harming anyone."
As noted in the quote that begins this
edition, the "correct" gender can be achieved by
"sex-selection techniques, like in vitro
fertilization and sperm sorting, or abortion."
In his website ad, Steinberg promises the moon.
None of this old-fashioned "sperm screening
techniques" which is only 60%
70%
effective, according to the s ite. Not only is
their use of Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis
virtually 100% accurate, PGD also "screens for
400 hereditary diseases."
Roberts ends with a couple of real-life
stories illustrating the enormous pressure put
on Asian-American women. He quotes a Hong
Kong-born gynecologist who practices in
Chinatown and Sunset Park, Brooklyn, who "said
she tried to discourage couples who prefer boys
from having abortions."
However, in cases where the first two
children are girls, and there is " going to be a
third, they're pretty determined to have a boy,"
she told Roberts. "If it's a boy, they keep it.
If it's a girl, they'll abort."
Please send your comments to
daveandrusko@gmail.com.
