Ucsf Internal Medicine

Pressure to Bear Sons Leads Some to Sex Selection: Study

SAN FRANCISCO — Cultural pressure to bear male offspring leads some Indian American women to use readily available reproductive technology in an effort to select sons or abort female fetuses, steps that are legal in this country but illegal in India, according to a University of California, San Francisco study.

Researchers interviewed 65 immigrant Indian women in California, New Jersey and New York who pursued fetal sex selection between September 2004 and December 2009.

The study found that 40 percent of the women terminated prior pregnancies when they found out the fetus was female, but of the women who discovered they were pregnant with a girl during the interview period, 89 percent underwent an abortion.

These results were consistent among all education levels; approximately half the women interviewed held jobs outside the home.

In addition, women who carried a female fetus to term said they were subject to varying degrees of verbal and physical abuse.

“Health care providers often are well-positioned to intervene or suggest options, but may be hesitant to approach issues perceived as ‘cultural’,” lead author Dr. Sunita Puri, a medical resident in the UCSF Department of Internal Medicine, stated in a press release.

“Reproductive technological advances are extremely valuable, but it is important to understand the varied impact they may have on women from different sociological backgrounds,” she said.

The researchers sought to understand how women exposed to cultural pressures to have male children react in an environment where reproductive choice is allowed and sex selection technologies are openly marketed and available.

The Indian government prohibits using ultrasound and sperm-sorting technologies explicitly for sex selection. In contrast, choosing an abortion for whatever reason, as well as selecting the sex of a child through various medical techniques, is legal in the United States.

Women identified female in-laws and husbands as sources of significant pressure to have male children. This was especially true when in-laws lived nearby, but also occurred if they remained in India, according to the study.

“When my second child was also a girl, she [mother-in-law] did not want to hold her after the birth,” one woman commented. Another spoke of going for testing to find out if the baby she was carrying was male.

UCSF School of Medicine Names Vice Dean of Education | www.ucsf.edu

Catherine Reinis Lucey, MD, has been appointed vice dean for education in the UCSF School of Medicine, effective September 1, according to Sam Hawgood, MBBS, dean of the UCSF School of Medicine who announced the appointment today (May 27).

Lucey will succeed David Irby, PhD, who will take a well-deserved sabbatical and then return to work on specific educational initiatives ( see last year's announcement .) 

Lucey is looking forward to coming back to the UCSF community. After earning her medical degree from the Northwestern University School of Medicine, she completed her residency in internal medicine, including service as chief resident, at the UCSF-affiliated San Francisco General Hospital.

“I am excited about returning to UCSF because I honestly believe that this institution has developed the best medical education system in the country,” Lucey said. “This is the institution that will be able to develop educational innovations that help our students and trainees become the types of physicians who will solve our current and future health care challenges. 

“On every visit I made to UCSF, I found faculty, residents and students who were actively engaged by the educational opportunities already in existence and excited about building on the many successes of the institution. The Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators, the new teaching and learning facilities, and the center for interprofessional education provided me with tangible evidence that UCSF takes great pride in setting the standard for medical education.”

Lucey outlined a few of her priorities as the new vice dean of medical education.

“My top priorities as vice dean will be to continue to support our students, trainees and faculty, to advance interprofessional education with colleagues in the other health sciences schools, to identify strategies to build a more seamless continuum of medical education and to work with the leaders in biomedical science and clinical care to ensure that our students and residents are a part of the exciting work that is going on here.

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