Brenna Kinser
09/19/2016
PHIL-2306
Dr. Griffin Nelson
Relativism and Sex-Selective Abortion It is widely known that in countries like China, there is a limit on how many children you can have. In order to pass on the family name, it is necessary to produce a male child. According to The Population Research Institute, there are millions of girls that are missing around the world and a large part of that reason is because they have been aborted solely on the fact that they are female (pop.org, Sex-Selective Abortion). When it comes to examining ethical issues like this one, it is important to look at relativism. Relativism is the idea that what you find morally correct depends on your culture or what you, as an individual feel is right. (Shafer-Landau, 293). A relativist would argue that if you want to abort your child for any reason, you should have the right to do so. On the other hand, many others might argue that gendercide is not morally acceptable, nor is …show more content…
After birth, in many places around the world try to rid of their female children by drowning, leaving on the street, and just throwing away their lives. When sonograms gave parents the opportunity to find the sex of the child before the baby was born, aborting of unborn girls began. (liveactionnews.org, “History”) In 1979, China initiated a policy that only allowed each family to have one child, if you have more than one you must pay an expensive fine. As previously stated, in order to pass on a family name, you must produce a male child. This policy had a huge impact on the decisions of the parents on whether or not to abort their child upon finding out the sex of their unborn child (liveactionnews.org, “History”). Although most of this happens in Asian countries, we see very uneven male to female ratios around the world. With a decrease of the number of women, there will be other problems arising in
09/19/2016
PHIL-2306
Dr. Griffin Nelson
Relativism and Sex-Selective Abortion It is widely known that in countries like China, there is a limit on how many children you can have. In order to pass on the family name, it is necessary to produce a male child. According to The Population Research Institute, there are millions of girls that are missing around the world and a large part of that reason is because they have been aborted solely on the fact that they are female (pop.org, Sex-Selective Abortion). When it comes to examining ethical issues like this one, it is important to look at relativism. Relativism is the idea that what you find morally correct depends on your culture or what you, as an individual feel is right. (Shafer-Landau, 293). A relativist would argue that if you want to abort your child for any reason, you should have the right to do so. On the other hand, many others might argue that gendercide is not morally acceptable, nor is …show more content…
After birth, in many places around the world try to rid of their female children by drowning, leaving on the street, and just throwing away their lives. When sonograms gave parents the opportunity to find the sex of the child before the baby was born, aborting of unborn girls began. (liveactionnews.org, “History”) In 1979, China initiated a policy that only allowed each family to have one child, if you have more than one you must pay an expensive fine. As previously stated, in order to pass on a family name, you must produce a male child. This policy had a huge impact on the decisions of the parents on whether or not to abort their child upon finding out the sex of their unborn child (liveactionnews.org, “History”). Although most of this happens in Asian countries, we see very uneven male to female ratios around the world. With a decrease of the number of women, there will be other problems arising in