ON SUBSTITUTING SEX PREFERENCE STRATEGIES IN EAST-ASIA - DOES PRENATAL SEX SELECTION REDUCE POSTNATAL DISCRIMINATION

Recent evidence from East Asia suggests that parents use prenatal sex testing to selectively abort female fetuses, a practice manifested in rising sex ratios (males per females) at birth. Many observers have co ndemned prenatal sex testing, arguing that it results in discriminator y abortion against females. However, observers have neglected the dyna mics between this new prenatal discrimination and traditional postnata l discrimination against young daughters. If the option of sex-selecti ve abortion implies that daughters carried to term are more likely to be wanted, postnatal discrimination might decline. Evidence from East Asia is used to investigate this ''substitution'' hypothesis. In socie ties where excess daughter mortality existed in the 1970s, rises in th e sex ratio at birth in the 1980s tended to be associated with decline s in excess daughter mortality. This preliminary support for the subst itution hypothesis suggests that judging the morality of sex-selective abortion requires prior consideration of the prevalence and relative evils of both prenatal and postnatal discrimination.