IIAS Newsletter 45 Autumn 2007

Chinese voices on abortion

Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner

Jing-Bao Nie. 2005. Behind the Silence: Chinese Voices on Abortion. Rowman & Littlefield: Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto and Oxford. 294 pages. ISBN 0 7425 2370 3

Behind the Silence is a timely work about the historical, cultural, social and political aspects of induced abortion in China, where it is used as a means of controlling population growth. Jing-Bao Nie is familiar with the history of induced abortion (see his Medical Ethics in China) and here includes a wealth of data on foetal life, the embryo’s moral status, birth control policies and eugenic policy-making.

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