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Chinese doctors taken to task for abortion gender bias

Physician Practice Advisor, March 2, 2005

Harsher penalties could be in the cards for physicians in China who break laws governing the detection of an unborn baby's gender, according to reports from the Associated Press. The push by top Chinese legislators is spurred on by an increasing gender gap in China, a gap partially blamed on parents that use gender detection tests to allow them to abort female babies and try again for males.

With population control policies limiting most Chinese couples to one child, many couples abort baby girls so that they can have sons, who are more valued in Chinese culture. Although laws currently exist forbidding doctors to use ultrasounds and other medical means to determine a baby's gender for non-medical reasons, the punishment for violating those laws is usually minimal and administrative, not criminal. Chinese newspapers reporting on the issue did not offer any specifics into how the penalties for doctors who break the law may be strengthened.

Gender ratios in China are now inching toward 1.5 boys for every 1 girl in some areas of the country, leading to a fear that there will someday be a severe shortage of mates for Chinese males in the decades to come.

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