ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the persistent devaluation of the girl child in India and the link between the entrenched perception of female valuelessness and the actual practices of female infanticide and female foeticide through sex-selective abortion. It seeks to place female infanticide, or ‘gendercide,’ within the context of Western-derived conceptions of ethics, justice and rights. To date, current ethical theories and internationally purveyed moral frameworks, as well as legal and political declarations, have fallen short of an adequate moral appraisal of infanticide. This chapter seeks to rethink the issue.
