Where Have All the Young Girls Gone? Preconception Gender Selection in India and the United States

Abstract

A comparative study of the social, ethical and legal reasons why India has banned all forms of gender selection, and how those reasons apply in the context of a constitutional analysis of gender selection in the United State. India presents a unique example of the problems that can arise given unrestricted usage of gender selection. After decades of permitting gender selection, India has experienced drastic social ramifications in the form of a markedly skewed sex ratio, thus drawing international attention to their practices of selective abortion and female infanticide, the purposeful killing of unwanted female newborns. This paper also focuses on the potential effect of new technologies that allow gender selection to be performed prior to fertilization.