Oryginalny artykuł naukowy
Studia Iuridica

Sex-Selective Abortion and the Problem of Discrimination

2025, 106, Numer 1


Data publikacji

29.07.2025

Model publikowania

open access

Rodzaj licencji


Dziedzina

Prawo

Dyscyplina

nauki prawne

Klasyfikacja

-

Język publikacji

Angielski

Pliki do pobrania

PDF 425 KB

Artykuł

Liczba wyświetleń:102

Liczba pobrań:44

Cytowania Crossref:0

Wynik Altmetric:0

Zobacz mapę pobrań

Abstrakt

The United Nations estimates that there are currently 140 million ‘missing women’ worldwide, a phenomenon largely attributed to the cultural ‘son preference’. This issue, often referred to by commentators and scholars as ‘gendercide’, raises significant moral and legal questions. The discourse surrounding the appropriate measures to address this issue presents intricate dilemmas. On the one hand, sex-selective abortion predominantly eliminates female fetuses, which should be a grave concern for advocates of women’s rights. On the other hand, imposing restrictions on this practice risks limiting access to abortion more broadly, undermining key justifications for its legality. This Article offers a comprehensive global analysis of the issue, examining three primary approaches: banning sex-selective abortion while allowing abortion in general, refusing to ban any form of abortion, and viewing all abortions as unacceptable. The analysis is conducted primarily from the perspective of logical consistency, comparing the underlying rationales of these positions and critically evaluating them. Furthermore, the Article explores the concept of replacing biological humanity with the notion of personhood and discusses the principle of non-discrimination as understood in international human rights law.

Słowa kluczowe:

Bibliografia

Bedi Puneet, quoted in 'India's Missing Girls', The Guardian, 2011

Cherry April, 'The Myth of the Neutral Decisionmaker: Reproductive Liberty, Judicial Reasoning, and the Abortion Debate', Wisconsin Women's Law Journal, Vol 10, 1995, 279-314

Clinton Hillary, Interview in The New York Times, April 2006.

Colb Sherry F., Dorf Michael C., Beating Hearts: Abortion and Animal Rights, Columbia University Press, 2016 https://doi.org/10.7312/columbia/9780231175142.001.0001

Greasley Kate, Arguments about Abortion: Personhood, Morality, and Law, Oxford University Press, 2017 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198766780.001.0001

International Conference on Population and Development, Programme of Action, Cairo, 1994

Kaczor Christopher, The Ethics of Abortion: Women's Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice, Routledge, 2010

Kalantry Sital, 'Sex Selection in the United States and India: A Contextualist Feminist Approach', UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs, Vol 18, 2014, 61-104

MacKinnon Catharine A, Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues, Harvard University Press, 2006 https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjnrvck

Miller Calum, Medical Ethics and the Sanctity of Human Life, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022

Muižnieks Nils, 'Sex-Selective Abortions Should be Criminalised', Human Rights Comment, Council of Europe, 2013

Powledge Tabitha, 'Prenatal Sex Selection: The Future of Reproductive Freedom?', The Hastings Center Report, Vol 28, No 5, 1998, 5-9

Schwartz Stephen, Tacelli Ronald, Beginnings of Life and the Moral Status of the Fetus, in: Moral Questions: An Introduction to Ethics, ed. by S. Schwartz, McGraw-Hill, 2004

Sheldon Sally, 'Selective Abortion: Whose Right?', Journal of Medical Ethics, Vol 28, No 3 2002, 162-164

Singer Peter, Practical Ethics, Cambridge University Press, 2011 https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511975950

UNFPA, Guide on Prenatal Sex Selection, 2015

UNFPA, Defying the Practices that Harm Women and Girls and Undermine Equality, 2020.

Warren Mary Anne, Gendercide: The Implications of Sex Selection, Totowa: Rowman & Littlefield, 1985

Warren Mary Anne, 'On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion', The Monist, Vol 57, No 1, 1973, 43-61 https://doi.org/10.5840/monist197357133

Westeson Johanna, 'Sex Selection: Protecting and Expanding Women's Rights', Reproductive Health Matters, Vol 20, No 40, 2012, 184-186

Williams Jeremy, 'Prenatal Screening and Embodied Responsibility: The Ethics of Selective Reproduction', Bioethics, Vol 30, No 3, 2016, 157-163

Podobne publikacje