It must be noted, however, that while infanticide and the ritual killing of disabled or “cursed” children is found mostly among indigenous tribes, including some tribes in Ethiopia, the selective killing of children for cultural reasons is not confined to remote areas and primitive peoples.

A 2016 report in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper found that a significant number of immigrant couples from India are practicing prenatal sex selection by aborting female fetuses. According to two studies cited in the report, the gender imbalance among children born to immigrants from India “was particularly striking among families that already had two daughters.” Researchers estimate that over the past two decades there have been about 4,500 “missing girls,” or female fetuses not born to Indian immigrant couples because they were selectively aborted.

But we shouldn’t be too quick to judge the Indian immigrants of Canada. We in the west have practiced abortion on an industrial scale for decades, after all, and the custom is just as barbaric as the infanticide of disabled children practiced among the Suruwaha. In Iceland, Down Syndrome is “disappearing” because prenatal testing has allowed prospective parents to abort children who test positive for it in utero. The same is happening all over Europe.