woman has 26 needles inside her body. Grandfather who wanted grandson suspected.

[Liberal_in_LA]

sick women hating sh*t.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-needles11sep11,0,2633301.story?coll=la-home-center

Woman has 26 needles in body

Chinese surgeons planned to begin removing 23 needles from Luo, possibly imbedded under her skin by grandparents trying to kill her so that a baby boy might take her place.

Relatives suspect her grandfather, who wanted a grandson. Surgery is scheduled for today to remove 6 of the objects.

By Ching-Ching Ni, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
6:53 PM PDT, September 10, 2007

BEIJING -- Her relatives had always described her as a colicky baby.

When Luo Cuifen was 26, she found out a likely reason why.

discovered more than two dozen sewing needles embedded in her body, some piercing her vital organs.

X-rays of her head and torso look like a dart board.

Doctors believe the needles were driven into her body when Luo was days old. One in the top of her skull could only have been stuck there when the bones in her head were still soft.

"They wanted her dead," said Qu Rei, a spokesman at Richland International Hospital in Yunnan province, which has agreed to surgically remove the first six of the 26 needles in her body today. "The fact she is still alive is a medical miracle."

Luo does not remember ever being stabbed. Relatives suspect her grandparents. They wanted a grandson instead of a second granddaughter.

"I was horrified," said Luo, now 29, in an interview by phone Monday from her hospital room. "How could they do such a thing to me when I was so young?"

[southerncrone]

1. An evil example of what happens when a nation does not have

proper birth control. And is ignorant of how power is inherited. The war against women is prevalent all over the globe. This planet will not heal until the female spirit is recognized as valuable.

[supernova]

2. China will go begging for girls

in the next 20, 50 100 years, as this lopsided philosophy that only boys matter comes home to roost. I mean, who are all those single boys gonna marry?

[wuushew]

3. They could always adopt polyandry

n/t

[supernova]

5. One town does just that

I can't remember where now, but they are a matriarchal society with the woman who are decision makers and land owners, and they decide w/ whom they will make babies.

[Selatius]

4. Nobody, unless they decide to dilute their ethnic identity by marrying into other peoples worldwide.

I could see a huge market for mail order brides both legal and illicit emerging because of this.

[Matariki]

12. It's always sounded like a frightening recipe for war to me...

[Selatius]

6. America has a lot of problems, but I think in some respects America is light years ahead of others.

For example, I think the notion of equality of the sexes is superior to what is seen in places like China, India, the Middle East, and countries in Africa that practice female genital mutilation. These places do not believe in such notions, and one thing with advances in communication technology and the rise of globalization is that their cultures will come more and more into contact with ours, and I believe their women will see how our women live over here in the western world and would want some of that freedom to choose. Granted, we're not there yet towards total gender equality, but we're far ahead of many other countries outside the western world.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. Irony. The Chinese girls abandoned in orphanages R adopted by Americans. better life than brothers

[Katherine Brengle]

7. I read about this a couple of days ago...

and there really are no words. This is how much the world cares about women and girls.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. If you could let the rest of us know

I, personally, would appreciate it.

I hate this, but I'm not the type to turn a blind eye.

Off to send this to my womens groups.

[defendandprotect]

8. How much longer before patriarchy is dismantled -- ????

[jmowreader]

11. The problem is worse than patriarchy

All of this can be blamed on one Chinese government policy: you're only allowed to have one child.

In Chinese culture, a family unit consists of a husband and wife, their sons and their wives (if any), and all their sons' children...sometimes living under one roof. This is all well and good if you have two children, one of each sex: your son lives in your area, your daughter with her husband. But if you've only got one kid, and said child is female, you're basically screwed. Therefore, infanticide is very popular in China.

It's worse in India for a slightly different reason: although you can have all the kids you want in India, if you've got a daughter there is a very large Bride Price, plus other assorted dowries, to get her married off. If you don't think (or you know you can't) afford it, you'll probably kill any daughters you're "cursed" with. The Indian people have raised infanticide to a very high art, sadly enough, but only in the rural areas. In urban areas they don't need it: they have ultrasound and sex-selective abortion.

[defendandprotect]

13. The immediate problem is patriarchal stupidity . . . .

Yes, one child -- but this one child was being killed because she was FEMALE.

All of this traces back historically to patriarchy --

And in India and other nations we have "honor kills" and "bride burnings" and the violence is based on discrimination against females as supposedly inferior.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Right:

Lots of people in Western countries have one child. They don't kill or abandon it if it's a girl.

Furthermore, the idea of the dowry is misogynistic. It implies that taking an extra woman into one's family (even though she's going to do all your housework and bear and raise your children) is such a burden that the bride's family has to bribe the groom's family to take their daughter off their hands.

[defendandprotect]

15. Thank you! . . . . and sad to see that that isn't generally readily understood here ---

Looks like all of this needs more discussion --