Letters

摘要

You drew attention to the practice of aborting female foetuses and the resulting sex imbalances in the Caucasus ("Gendercide in the Caucasus", September 21st). The UN Population Fund has done extensive research on this. Our figures for Armenia, the example cited in your article, show that the greatest imbalances are seen not at the birth of the first or second child, but from the third child on (up to 160 boys born for every 100 girls). This means that parents typically resort to abortion to realise their preference for a son when the first two attempts to give birth to a boy fail. There are no indications of reverse sex selection (parents preferring girls when the first child is a son).