{"id":7953,"date":"2011-07-01T15:36:37","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T04:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=7953"},"modified":"2011-07-02T02:06:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T15:06:00","slug":"killing-baby-girls-belief-its-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2011\/07\/01\/killing-baby-girls-belief-its-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Killing baby girls: Belief & its consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

A disclaimer; In writing this I am attempting to put aside my personal abhorrence at the unnecessary\u00a0taking of life.<\/p>\n

The trend to\u00a0kill baby girls via sex-selective abortion is governed by deeply held beliefs. Beliefs lead to practices\/ behaviours and sometimes the behavioural consequences go further than initially perceived by the believers. A recent article, Trend to Kill Baby Girls Gets UN Attention<\/a> sets out the case:<\/p>\n

For example, killing baby girls leads to\u00a0demographic consequences, more males than\u00a0females, and hence to\u00a0economic impacts and\u00a0threat to\u00a0global\u00a0peace.<\/p>\n

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) filed a motion called “Sex-selective abortion — ‘Gendercide'” in May 2010 (Doc. 12258), inviting the member states of the Council of Europe to “condemn sex-selective abortion, wherever and whenever it occurs.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The report notes the preference for male offspring, “especially in cultures or countries where family sizes are constrained.”<\/div>\n
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It highlights the plight of China — where 124 boys are born for every 100 girl — as well as India, South Korea, Taiwan and even some European countries.<\/div>\n
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The European Centre for Law and Justice noted:<\/div>\n
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“Considering possible consequences of this ‘gendercide,’ the document affirms that this ‘gender imbalance constitutes a serious threat for global security. The selective pre-natal killing of females will in the near future lead to a further radical decline of birth rates, which could dangerously undermine the sustainability of entire national economies.’ The motion also mentions the negative consequences of future male-dominated populations where men are unable to find wives and start a family.”<\/div>\n

This month, five U.N. agencies issued a joint statement<\/a> on “Preventing gender-biased sex selection.”<\/p>\n

The statement notes that while the biologically normal sex ratio at birth ranges from 102 to 106 males per 100 females, ratios higher than normal — sometimes as high as 130 — have been observed.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Killing baby girls is literally death to them and figuratively death to all of us. John Donne’s poem\u00a0is ringing in my ears with a particular irony,\u00a0‘No man is an island entire of itself …’<\/a><\/p>\n

Killing baby girls should be stopped. How? By persuading people to follow beliefs that are life giving.<\/p>\n

During my recent leave I reread Viktor Frankl\u2019s \u2018Man\u2019s Search for Meaning\u2019 which relates his experiences as a Nazi concentration camp inmate. He concludes that holding a belief is what gives a person the strength to go on \u2013 even amongst suffering and death.<\/p>\n

Ideas shape life. What we believe matters. Ideas have consequences. Ideas shape deeds.<\/p>\n

Easter belief holds life-giving meaning.<\/p>\n

See, Of cracked pots and Easter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A disclaimer; In writing this I am attempting to put aside my personal abhorrence at the unnecessary\u00a0taking of life. The trend to\u00a0kill baby girls via sex-selective abortion is governed by deeply held beliefs. Beliefs lead to practices\/ behaviours and sometimes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7953"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7974,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953\/revisions\/7974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}