Should love for a partner depend on whether she gives birth to a son?

You should not neglect or abandon your partner because she has not given birth to the child you wanted. A person is not a tool for continuing the family line, and love should not count only after a son is born. Cherish your partner and treat those beside you well.

In my religious work, I shared a sorrowful story involving past and present lives. A young lady married with a maid who had grown up alongside her and whom she usually cared for like a younger sister. The lady had a daughter but no further children. The maid gave birth to a son, and the husband's family changed its treatment of the two women. The lady and her daughter became increasingly neglected and eventually fell ill and died.

The maid knew the lady had treated her kindly, but feared the husband's family and did not dare help. When discussing resolution, I did not simply describe the whole affair as the maid taking everything away. The family's preference for boys, its treatment of someone without a son as inauspicious, and even its refusal to let relatives approach were important problems within this tragedy.

So I called it a tragedy of its era and a reminder for today. You cannot humiliate a partner and children as 'unclean' or 'a bringer of misfortune' because no son was born. If hearing the story teaches compassion and helps us return to treating people well and cherishing those before us, then we have not listened in vain.