Female Feticide, its Social Issues and Legal Implications

Abstract

The long standing tradition of son preference over the girl in Indian society has given birth to many social problems and females feticide is one among all. The girl children become targets of attack even beforetheyare born. This is evident from the declining sex ratio, especially in the northern states, according to census 2011 report. Sons are preferred over daughter for various social, economic and religious reasons such as family linkage, type of insurance for the future, prestige and power, financial support, salvation, dowry, low status of women, gender discrimination, family name as traditional causes and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technology which is considered as bales of advancement in science and technology. In our society we all talk about equality in all walk of life, then, Why male are given the right to take birth and not women? It is well known fact that the latest advances in modern medical sciences – the tests like Amniocentesis and Ultra-sonography, which were originally designed for detection of congenital abnormalities of the fetus, are being misused for knowing the sex of the fetus with the intention of aborting it if it happens to be that of a female.