I'm just back from China- where the girl babies come from. As you probably know the Chinese government has instituted a one-child-per-couple policy in response to the country's population explosion. One result, according to many people I spoke to, will be a generation of "Little Emperors" as they are called, boy wonders with six doting adults in attendance - their parents and their four grandparents. Another result is the opposite response to girl babies, who traditionally are not considered capable of connecting to the family ancestors. Until ultrasound testing was banned, many couples would find out the sex of their baby and abort females. Now they put those girls up for adoption. Ten thousand of those unwanted girls have been adopted by American families. According to one of our guides, "the Chinese people" see this as a win-win situation. For three reasons: first of all, it is good that those girls are leaving the country, so they are not adding to the population; secondly, they are being given a good life; and third, the state gets the money from adoption fees to support the orphanages.

The demographic consequence of all this is that there now 117 boys for every 100 girls, and the concern is that there will not be enough wives for all those "Little Emperors." (The societal consequence of a testosterone-heavy population remains to be seen.) The good news, such as it is, is that government is considering easing up the policy a bit, so that if a couple produces a girl, they can keep her and still have one more chance to "get it right" - but just one.