Members of the Standing Committee of the National
People's Congress (NPC) called on Saturday for a new criminal
law prohibiting gender-based abortion and fetal gender
identification for non-medical purposes.
"The gender imbalance will affect marriages for a certain period
in the future and add to social instability," Standing Committee
member Xu Zhihong said at the discussion.
Selective abortion also harms the health of women and in the
majority of cases tragically ends the lives of female fetuses, said
Xu, who is also president of Peking
University.
Traditionally, Chinese people preferred sons since they were
better able to provide for their families and support elderly
parents. They were also believed to be the ones to carry on the
family line. The tradition lingers, particularly in some rural
areas.
Since the country's family planning policy allows most couples
to have just one child, the persistent bias for boys sometimes
leads them to decide to abort a female fetus. Others give birth but
abandon the girl infants.
The national birth gender ratio has risen to about 117 boys to
100 girls, compared to 108 boys to 100 girls in 1982.
Although the practice of conducting ultrasound scans and telling
the parents a child's sex is prohibited by regulation, many clinics
accept payments to do so anyway.
The lawmakers are now considering whether to impose criminal
penalties instead of the administrative sanctions and fines to
which violators are now subject. The only criminal punishment now
in place concerns people who have no medical license but conduct
abortions.
More than 10 of the NPC Standing Committee members have proposed
adding a criminal article targeting licensed doctors who reveal the
sex of fetuses or conduct abortions for non-medical purposes.
But some are more cautious. "Revealing the sex of a fetus is
against professional ethics but it alone is not up to the level of
criminal offense," said Qiu Xinglong, a law professor at Xiangtan
University, in the central province of Hunan.
He believes that identification should be punishable only when
it leads to selective abortion.
"Having a rule to deter abortion is no problem, but where to
draw the line is an issue lawmakers need to tread carefully."
(
China Daily February 28, 2005)