Some Asian Immigrant Families Use Technology To Select Male Children, Studies Say

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Pregnancy / Obstetrics;  Sexual Health / STDs;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 09 Jan 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Some Asian immigrant families are using U.S. medical technology to have sons instead of daughters, possibly because of cultural beliefs valuing sons, according to new research from two independent teams of economists, the San Jose Mercury News reports. One study, from Columbia University, indicates that immigrant families from China, India and Korea use medical technology -- most likely including abortion -- to select for boys. Douglas Almond, co-author of the study, said that the researchers "didn't expect to see a male bias" and did not find one when looking at the first child born to a family. However, male bias "seem[ed] to appear after a first daughter, and more strongly after a second daughter," Almond said. In addition, in a soon-to-be published study from the University of Texas, economist Jason Abrevaya found that among Indian families in Santa Clara County, Calif., that first had two daughters, there was a 58% chance that the next child would be a son, which is "significantly higher than the natural 51% chance of having a boy," the Mercury News reports. Both teams found no comparable male bias among white, black and Japanese-American families that first had daughters, according to the Mercury News.

Although the two studies indicate that some Asian couples manipulated the odds of having male children, they do not identify the methods used for sex selection. According to Abrevaya, the data do not indicate that female infanticide -- a practice documented in India and China -- is occurring in the U.S. He added, "If gender-selective abortion is the cause for the unusual Asian-Indian boy birth ratios, then the abortion rate would be 20% to 25% of female fetuses who otherwise would have been born as a third or fourth child." Another technique used by some families to select for a particular gender is preimplantation genetic diagnosis, which involves harvesting fertilized embryos, identifying whether they are male or female and implanting the desired sex. Jeffrey Steinberg, medical director of the Fertility Institutes of Los Angeles, said that his clients pay up to $18,000 for PGD services. He added that Chinese and Indian couples are a major source of his clients. Although these clients often seek male children, Steinberg said some clients, such as Canadians, prefer to have female children. Suresh Nayak, a physician in San Jose, Calif., offers gender selection services using a different technique, which selects sperm before conception to increase the odds of having a child of a certain gender.

Some advocates are protesting gender selection by placing pressure on publications that advertise medical procedures for sex selection. Preeti Shekar, a journalist and advocate from Berkeley, Calif., called for "consciousness-raising" among South Asian communities about the "sexist and racist consequences" of technologies such as PGD. Although Abrevaya said he found stronger evidence for sex selection among Indian immigrants than among Chinese immigrants, he added that he is concerned more people may begin using these techniques as they become less expensive. According to the Mercury News, the U.S. is one of "very few" countries that does not prohibit the use of techniques such as PGD for gender selection (Swift, San Jose Mercury News, 1/7).

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