Far-reaching consequences

One of the things I hauled back from California was a box of my old crap, including a time capsule I put together for an assignment my senior year of high school, other Very Important Things (like my blankie!), and some of my college papers. One of the papers I found was written for an international resources and development class (or something like that) - a discussion of China's one-child policy.

I still remember the research I did for this paper. It was mostly pre-internet, certainly pre-Wikipedia, and to find newspaper articles I had to use microfiche(!) (Yes, Virginia, there was once a time, not too long ago, when you couldn't actually use the internet to find ANYTHING you were looking for.) I spent hours researching and thinking about the one-child policy and its implications for the future. And today, I came across an article discussing the effects from the policy, 30 years on.

In 1979, China implemented a near-blanket policy regarding family size. A given set of parents was only allowed to have one child. Certain exceptions were made for members of specific ethnic groups, or for if the first child was mentally or physically impaired in some fashion. But for the vast majority of the population, for the past 30+ years, you get once child. One kid, who will grow up, get married, and (probably) have one kid. And if you have more than one? The additional kids won't be educated on the state's dime. And if you're a woman who works in a factory, chances are you end up with a forced abortion - or, at least, that's how it worked when I was researching my paper.

But wait! What happens when all those kids who were born in the last 30 years grow up and want to get married? If you're in China, the gender ratio is highly skewed due to traditional beliefs and desires. In China, if you're only going to have one kid, you're likely to want a boy. In China, boys grow up to be men, who have higher status and greater earning potential. In China, male children care for their aging parents, while female children marry into other families. China has a long and storied history of female infanticide, a practice that, while distasteful at the very least, makes sense in the cultural context. The practice continued after the one-child policy was put into effect, and, once ultrasounds with gender-detecting technology became more prevalent, fell by the wayside as many women opted instead to abort their girls rather than bring them to term.

It's quite sad, really, that a policy that was intended to help with population control will have such long-reaching effects. Not only is there a horribly skewed gender ratio of as many as 130 males for every 100 females, but the consequences include millions of men being unable to marry. And women being abducted and trafficked.

Maybe in another 15 or 20 years, when the effects of the one-child policy take full effect, a cultural shift will come about. Girls and women are important, too. I understand China isn't the only place where sex-selective abortion is a problem, but, in my opinion, the fact that it happens anywhere is a problem. Maybe China will realize there's value in girls and women just as much as in boys and men.

Saturday Potpourri: No Girls Allowed

I can't express how happy I am that I'm taking Monday off in order to have a day to just work on projects and other things that need working on. Our house is now clean, and tomorrow we're having friends over for dinner (Menu: shrimp/mango ceviche and chips,black bean soup with chicken sausage, fresh baked bread, Mexican chocolate and sopapillas, all from scratch/homemade). We're making Thanksgiving dinner at Dan's parents' house and finalized the menu last night. I fixed the vaccuum. Monday is going to be just me at home at least part of the day, since Dan's off for the whole week and will spend Monday in the lab working on a project for school.

This week's awesomest thing was observed during our grocery shopping trip this afternoon; I spotted in the freezer case something called Men's Bread. Because everybody knows that one can (and should) make a food product designed just for men (or ladies). Seriously, wtf? Bread...for men. Hm. I guess chicks just can't handle its masculine goodness.

A few days ago, I learned about a disturbing initiative that people here in Colorado are trying to get on the ballot, one that would define a fertilized egg as a person in this state. Because that's a good idea. It sure would make IVF a lot more difficult. Great plan. It's a slippery slope argument, sure, one that could or would eventually lead to the illegality of abortion, and possibly some forms of birth control (hormonal birth control prevents ovulation and sometimes implantation, so if a fertilized egg were unable to implant because one is on the pill, the argument could be made that one is killing a person. Also, an IUD prevents implantation, not ovulation). I don't talk much about my political views on this blog, and I do respect the position of all life being sacred, but personally I'm staunchly pro-choice and would be extraordinarily unhappy were this to get on the ballot here and pass. There's no reason for this other than to take that step toward taking control over women's bodies away from them and into the hands of people who want that control.

While I consider a fertilized egg (and therefore, one that has implanted and started to grow) the potential to be a person, in my opinion, a fetus doesn't have personhood until it is able to live outside the womb (whether that be with medical assistance or not). I know that line is earlier these days than it used to be, but perhaps the easiest way for me to classify it is to say that I believe personhood begins and ends with brain activity. Brain waves detectable? It's a person. No brain waves? Fetus or vegetable, there's no person there. Hell, once upon a time even the Catholic church didn't consider a fetus to be a person with a soul before "quickening" (meaning the mother could feel the fetus moving). Until and unless they make artificial wombs that can grow people from fertilized eggs to viability, I don't think a fertilized egg should have legal personhood - to me, the health and welfare of the mother always trumps that of the dependent fetus. It's her body, it's her choice, and in my opinion there's no reason other than the aforementioned control of women's bodies to classify a fertilized egg as a person.

OK, off the soapbox now. My kitty is sleeping beside me, snoring lightly, and my belly is full of dinner (turkey burgers, potatoes, and califlower crack (tm Monkey). I got to make myself a white Russian, something I've been craving for a few weeks now, and I'm more than happy to be sitting at home, working on projects and hanging out with Dan. I loves me some Saturday.