Armenia holds the highest rank in the world for domination of male newborns, after China and Azerbaijan.
“Woof-woof, woof-woof, this is how I bark, Woof-woof, woof-woof. And so I guard the house.”
These lines are taken from H. Tumanyan’s poem “Dog”. Recites the 5-year-old Ruben. He does not know reading and writing, but can memorized recite the poems by famous Armenian writers. He desires to replenish them. “When I grow up, I write very good fairy tales and poems for children. I want to become like Hovhannes Tumanyan,” says the 5 -year-old child. Reuben would not be born, if his mother had not identified that she was going to have a son, “I had already two daughters, I have long dreamed of having a son, I had lost all my hopes, I wanted to do an artificial interruption of pregnancies, my neighbor said, go and see, it might be a boy.” Mrs. Gayane’s son is now 5 years old, how strange it sounds, the boy owes his life to his sexual identity.
Armenia holds the highest rank in the world for domination of male newborns, after China and Azerbaijan. This is indicated in the poll conducted by the United Nations Population Fund. According to it, since 1990, the ratio of sexes of newborns in Armenia has been deviated. In 2012, we had the following ratio: 114 boys vs. 100 girls (whereas in China, the boy-girl ratio according to 2011 annual assessment was 117-100). While the normal ratio ranges from 102 to 106 boys vs. 100 girls. Armenia potentially loses around 1400 future mothers per year. If the phenomenon of artificial interruption of pregnancies conditioned by the sex is continued, according to the projections of the Fund, Armenia will lose almost 93,000 women or potential future mother by 2060.
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It is accepted opinion that the boy is the barrier of continuing the family. This and many other reasons are due to the preference for male children in our country, often, the increase in the number of artificial interruption of pregnancies is due to the sex. Deacon Varazdat Kocharyan considers the artificial interruption of pregnancies, including due to the sex, a strike against love. “If love is perfect, then the fruit of love is desired, no matter of the gender. Turning to artificial interruption of pregnancies, people ruin the love for each other, the consequences of which are once expressed in their family relationships.” Deacon adds, “a child is God’s gift, family members, including mother-in-law, sister-in-law and others do not have the right to decide it to be born or not.
There are two views on artificial interruption of pregnancies in the textbook “Bioethics” taught at the Yerevan State Medical University: liberal and conservative. “Conservatives believe that by deprived the life of a fetus we are killing the substance that can later become a personality. Liberals claim that a woman has the right to dispose her body voluntarily, and therefore she is free to make artificial interruption of pregnancies. They rely on the opinion that a fetus is not yet a person, because it is not attributed by features characterizing a personality, such as contact, ability to communicate, developed ability to relatively solve complex problem,” is written in the book. “This is typical to feminists who believe that they have the absolute right to dispose their body, whereas the embryo is not mother’s body anymore. For them, killing children is the same as removing a tooth,” says Deacon Varazdat Kocharyan.
In-between 12 to 16 weeks of pregnancy, the mother first feels the movements of the child, the child also feels when caressing the mother’s belly. In 12 week of pregnancy, the period, when based on the mother’s application, artificial interruption of pregnancy is possible, the fetus is already 28 grams. Its eyes and ears are also in their places, and the kidneys begin to produce urine.
Woman’s right to artificial interruption of pregnancy
From legal point of view, every woman has the right to artificial interruption of pregnancy. Pursuant to decree N 1116-N of the Government of the Republic of Armenia dated August 5, 2004, artificial interruption of pregnancies up to 12 weeks of pregnancy is performed according to the woman’s application, and during the absence of defined medical contraindications (e.g., acute infectious diseases, woman threatening diseases, etc., in other words, if unwanted girl, the woman may apply for artificial interruption of pregnancy), and up to 22 weeks – under medical and social indications circumstances (for example, if a woman has a heart defect, her husband has died, or if the child is the result of rape).
The RA Law on the Rights of the Child, Article 5, says, “The child has a right to life.” How is the right to life and artificial interruption of pregnancy balanced? Rosa Stepanyan, Chief Legal Adviser of “AM” Law Firm, says, “The European Convention on Human Rights says that everyone has the right to life, but it does not clearly define when the moment of the right to life starts and ends, and whether the fetus is included in “everyone”. It is written in the comments of the Article that the right of the fetus is not an absolute right as the right of persons born, because the life of the fetus is connected to mother’s life. In this sense, the European Court has left it open, and every member country is free to decide how to define the rights of the child.”
It turns out that our legislation issues legal status of a child only to the borns, and defines the right to life for them. There is no legislative act, according to which a child has the right to be born, this right seems to be reserved to the parents. The birth of the child depends on their conscience.
Enough time was discussed around introducing restrictions in the legislation on at least selective artificial interruption of pregnancies, particularly providing information to parents about the child’s sex. Rosa Stepanyan answers, there were rumors, but there is no change in the legal field. Gayane Avagyan, Head of Maternal and Reproductive Health Department says, “We wanted to ban providing the information on the sex, but controversies emerged, in doing it we restrict the constitutional rights on providing full information about a person, in any case, we try to find some solutions.”
Deacon Varazdat Kocharyan notes that the law and the medicine are sciences granted to us by God for our wellbeing, if we use them against God it means that they do not serve the truth, they are incomplete. “The formed fetus, even formed embryo is already a human life. Inroad upon the embryo means inroad upon life. If the child does not move, it does not mean that it is not a man and it can be removed, and then feel relaxed that they have not killed a man,” said the Deacon. In this regard, he recalls a story, “A man comes to the priest and says: “Father, I have 2 children, my wife is pregnant, but we do not have the opportunity to keep them all, please bless to go for artificial interruption of pregnancy.” The father says, you have my blessings. This man expresses his satisfaction and hurries to leave, while the priest asks, “How old is your other son?”, “12 years old,” came the answer. “I bless not to kill your unborn child, but him, this child has at least seen for 12 years what is God’s creation, has enjoyed it all, and the other one has not seen nothing yet.” The man coming to the priest left in sadness realizing that there is no difference between killing of born and unborn babies,” says Deacon Varazdat Kocharyan.
Nazeni BAGHDASARYAN
