Abstract:
In this paper I shall inquire into the metaphysical underpinnings
of the prohibition of prenatal femicide within the Indian cultural
and legal milieu. Even though I choose Th e Medical Termination of
Pregnancy Act and Th e Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (amended
in 2004 as Th e Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act)
as the commencing points of my study, I will develop neither legal
nor anthropological analysis of the sex-selective abortion in India.
My purpose is to present politico-philosophical implications of the
legal solutions in question.
Th e main thesis of my paper is the contention that metaphysical
background theories that the prohibition of prenatal femicide is based
on undermine the anti-discriminatory objectives of this prohibition;
what follows, this anti-discriminatory legislation is then a contradiction
in terms and for that reason ought to be abandoned.