Comments on: [How] America is Exacerbating China’s Abortion Problems

By: susan

susan — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:01:42 +0000

sorry I wrote too long and have to split into several pieces…

By: susan

susan — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:00:51 +0000

The third point I want to mention is though so much being said, though we think "America is not helping China's Abortion problems", America does have some valuable experiences that we can learn from, such as the humane spirit, the shared religious belief (though somewhat divided), a good system to caring for those with such need, and a better health education. This reminds me of the film Juno, the way they deal with this matter depicts the humane side of American society, and the result is satisfying. Adoption may be a solution, we need to further explore.

By: susan

susan — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:00:27 +0000

Abortion in China is more of a problem in cities than rural areas, just as the report you mentioned by experts here. Pre-screening is carried out in rural areas as well, yet mostly for the aim of checking the gender, and then decide whether hospitalized or family delivery. Abortion is not an option for most of the peasants, for one thing, abortion needs money and not covered in the NCMS; for another, the cost of raising a child in rural areas is not so high as that of urban, and probably the female children can also earn money to support male ones; and to some, abortion is immoral. But in cities, it is another completely different scenario, with the number of juveniles on the rise, and it's not optimistic.

By: Susan

Susan — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:59:27 +0000

And I also clicked into the links, the story of Baby soup thing gave me a total shock at first. Yet afterwards, when I check for the authenticity of this article, I found it so hard to be convinced. This article was in the Letter column from a Korean media (Korea has the record of being hostile to China), and the information provided is, to a large extent, very vague (probably the reporter will defend by saying "protecting testifier" blabla), what's more, there is only one testifier whose identity are yet to verify. The article quoted a local reporter saying this is "arising from Chinese being taking too much attention in health", which I will not agree and don't see the logic in that. Then the pics look real, yet it doesn't look like a typical Chinese restaurant, and the knife they use is also not typical here. Then I googled, and found not many reports on this matter, and this is almost the only one being quoted everywhere and has aroused certain sensation against Chinese. No one can tell whether or not this is another "Blood libel"(grand new to me, not sure whether using it correctly) by some people with malicious intention.

By: susan

susan — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:58:44 +0000

First of all, thank you for writing this great article, and I will certainly forward it to my friends~ not only for that it presents abundant and useful information, but also I was deeply impressed by your "unbiasedness", which is rare, if I may say so, among foreign reporters nowadays. To be honest, Western Media used to equal "justice and truth" to me until recent years, esp. during Tibet event, when they published false reports and pics intentionally while under the name of "revealing the truth"! What's worse, some of these media are among the most influential ones, thus hardly can we imagine the consequence. This is why I admire your objectivity, though being a cool-headed "third-person" is not always an easy job~

By: Paul Responds to Recent Article on Abortion «Asia Health Care Blog

Paul Responds to Recent Article on Abortion «Asia Health Care Blog — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:24:03 +0000

[...] Paul Steele has contributed several stories to AHCB, including the popular China Quarantine Blog. He has also published essays in Japanese dealing with issues of sexual violence in Japanese culture. Below he responds to my recent essay [How] America is Exacerbating China's Abortion Problems. [...]

By: Fred

Fred — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:14:49 +0000

Great work. There's a tremendous amount to be said for taking a look at issues that are particularly contentious in one culture, in the context of another. Even as an American living abroad for a few years now, it's very difficult for me to imagine/remember that the abortion debate isn't always framed in religious terms. It's probably difficult for Chinese to imagine some of their hot button issues, for example Japan and Taiwan, being looked at from another perspective. Of course it's very helpful for exercises in imagination and empathy being grounded in facts and this article does a great job of providing both new perspective (at least for me) and research that provides context and fuller understanding.

By: Damjan

Damjan — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:02:31 +0000

Thank you Eunice. That was my intent and writing this piece without ‘taking sides’ or even appearing to ‘take sides’ was a challenge. I bow back to you with the slightest tilt of my Simpson head.

By: Damjan

Damjan — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:00:47 +0000

Thank you, I’m much obliged. It’s interesting that you mention how we will often only go so far as thinking about “Should we be playing God?” when talking about selective abortions. That question is convenient for starting a debate, but it misses out on how the debate is carried out. In effect, the question misses the point if the answer given is anything but ‘No’. It is admitting that we are not God(s) and therefore limited in our capacity to reason and carry out decisions which leads to the much more important question “How is our humanity impacting our abortion problems? What about us being human is causing these problems?”

Thank you Will.

By: Eunice Gunneson

Eunice Gunneson — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:37:14 +0000

Hope the slight bowing of my head and smile say something – you have written a master-peace about a sensitive subject. The reader has been given the opportunity to accept history, learn from it, and move away from futile debate into reality.