经济学人下载:性别选择,哑巴啦?

The ultrasound and other technologies that identify the sex of a fetus started out as diagnostic devices to help people with sex-linked diseases, such as haemophilia, conceive healthy children. They were greeted rapturously in America in the 1960s. “Ultrasound Device Takes Guessing Out of Pregnancy” ran one headline. “Control of Life: Audacious Experiments Promise Decades of Added Life” ran another.

在开始的时候，确认胎儿性别的超声波扫描和其它技术是作为诊断设备来帮助有伴性遗传的病人帮助孕育健康儿童（译者注：超声波技术有助于早期检测胎儿性别，以此可以知道孕妇是否可到健康婴儿），如血友病。美国20世纪60年代，这些技术得到了狂热的欢迎。报纸刊登标题为“超声波设备使得怀孕期间无需再猜”的文章。另一篇文章为“生命控制：大胆创新的实验有望为人类增寿几十年”。

But 1960s America was also a period of growing concern (hysteria, even) about population in developing countries. Policymakers, demographers and military men all thought rapid population growth was the biggest single threat to mankind and that drastic measures would be needed to rein it in. One such figure was Paul Ehrlich, whose book, “The Population Bomb”, became a bestseller in 1968. Mr Ehrlich pointed out that some Indian and Chinese parents would go on having daughter after daughter until the longed-for son arrived. If, he argued, they could be guaranteed a son right away, those preliminary daughters would not be born, and population growth would be lower. Sex selection became a tool in a wider battle to stop “overpopulation”.

但20世纪60年代的美国也是日益（甚至是歇斯底里的）关注发展中国家人口的阶段。政策制定者，人口学家和军人都认为快速的人口增长是人类的最大威胁，并将需要采取极端措施来严格控制。保罗．埃尔利希（PaulEhrlich）就是这样一位人物。1968年，他的《人口炸弹》成了畅销书。埃尔利希先生（MrEhrlich）指出，印度和中国的一些父母在生了一个个女儿之后是不会停止生育的，直到他们想要的儿子出生为止。他认为，假如他们能被立马保证会生一个儿子，那么，那些起先出生的女儿就不会出生了，因而人口增长率就会降低。性别选择在阻止更广泛的“人口过剩”的斗争中成了一项工具。

But how did an obsession of Western policymakers turn into the widespread practice of destroying female fetuses in Asia? Partly, argues Ms Hvistendahl, through aid. The Ford and Rockefeller Foundations gave over $3m to the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the 1960s, helping it to pioneer India’s first amniocentesis tests, initially for genetic abnormalities and later for identifying fetal sex. India at that time was the World Bank’s biggest client, and the bank made loans for health projects conditional on population control.

然而，西方政策制定者们的痴迷如何转变成了破害亚洲女性胎儿的普遍做法呢？赫弗斯坦托尔女士（Ms Hvistendahl）认为，在一定程度上是通过对外援助来达到这点的。20世纪60年代，美国福特和洛克菲勒基金会向全印医学科学研究所（AIIMS）提供了300万美元，帮助该研究所创办了印度首次羊膜穿刺检查，开始是为遗传异常（畸形）检查，后来则为鉴别胎儿性别检查。那时，印度是世界银行最大的客户，而世界银行卫生项目贷款条件就是人口控制。