Missing Women: Female-Selective Abortion and Infanticide

In India, Pakistan, and China, being born a girl can be an instant death sentence. This program—winner of the Albert Londres Prize, France's highest award for journalism—unflinchingly examines the cultural, economic, and political reasons for the systematic elimination of females in Asia and considers the implications of the dramatic demographic disruption that will likely occur as a result of this growing imbalance between the sexes. The use of amniocentesis and ultrasound scans to identify female fetuses for abortion is investigated, as are the practices of newborn abandonment and infanticide by a parent or a hired baby girl killer. (54 minutes