Sikhism And Sex-Selection In India

I. Introduction The world we live in today is filled with anger, violence, and hate. Millions are tortured, sold, and ultimately killed everyday and everyday we ask why. Out of all the religions that permeate this earth, why does this world seem so godless? The experts take the easy way out and say that God is dead and religion has been killed right along with him, but this is simply not true. According to Nancy Ammerman, we live in a world where religion is widespread across borders and penetrates the everyday lives of everyday people, but it is often not recognized because we look for very specific traditions the do not reach beyond the walls of a place of worship. Ammerman argues that if we look beyond our stagnant, traditional view of …show more content…
As we speak, hundreds, even thousands, of female fetuses are being aborted and women are being beaten and shunned from their families. Young girls are being kidnapped and sold as brides to be shared by multiple men. This is all because of a cultural sexism and patriarchy that has taken place in India, as well as other countries in Southeast Asia. If the feminist side of the Sikh religion can be taken seriously, Sikhism can play a role in reversing this horrible practice. However, the beliefs of Sikhism can have major implications on creating a global bioethics. In this paper, I will highlight the traditions and practices of Sikhism and explain the influence this religion can have on sex-selection in India, as well the implications of Sikhism on creating a global …show more content…
Female children are seen as a liability because, in this part of the world, the family of the bride must pay a dowry to the groom’s family, as I previously mentioned. As a result of this practice, male children are seen as assets and are preferred over girls because they will contribute to the family’s wealth and will remain in the family to take care of parents and family members when they become elderly, whereas female children will eventually take money from the family to give to their husbands as a dowry and will become part of their husbands family, meaning they can not take care of their parents in old age. This preference for men has resulted in a skewed ratio between men and women in Southeast Asia, but especially India, which has arisen from increasing technology that has allowed pre- and post-conception sex selection, enabling parents to ensure they have a male child. One pre-conception option that allows parents to preselect the gender of the fetus is in-vitro fertilization, however, this is very expensive. Most families opt for the post-conception option of sex-selective abortion, where once the gender of the child is determined, the fetus is aborted if the child is a female. This option is still quite expensive, thus this practice of sex-selection is popular among the higher class. What makes this practice even worse is that tests that are normally used to detect genetic