Upcoming Presentation

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Wednesday 12th March, 5pm - Taylor C16
Brigit Toebes, 'Sex Selection Under International Human Rights Law'


Abstract:

Sex selection, or influencing whether to have a boy or a girl, embraces sex selection before and during pregnancy, as well as infanticide. In my presentation I will discuss the issue of sex selection from an international human rights perspective. I will address the question of whether human rights laws are permissive or prohibitive with regard to sex selection. In relation to this I will discuss some of the ethical views on the matter. India and the UK are used as case studies to illustrate the debate. In both countries sex selection is -roughly speaking- prohibited, but the difference is that, while in India there is widespread practice of ‘son preference’, in the UK reasons for choosing to sex select are mostly because of ‘family balancing’.The key question is whether choosing the sex of one’s child is inherent in the right of reproductive choice, an important principle under international human rights law. I will suggest that international human rights law does not recognise a right to ‘sex selection’. I will point out that international human rights law is generally geared towards prohibiting sex selection based on the assumption that it enhances discrimination of women. On this basis I will put forward the view that a right to choose the sex of one’s child is not an element of women’s ‘right of reproductive choice’, which stipulates a right to choose the number and spacing of one’s children, not the sex.Based on these findings I will argue that international human rights law provides strong legal and moral grounds for prohibiting sex selection, in particular in countries like India where there is extensive practice of sex selection. In countries like the UK, where the current main reason to sex select is for ‘family balancing’, the basis for prohibition under international human rights law is not as strong, yet several reasons can be put forward to nonetheless prohibit the practice.

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