The thing that baffles me is that this family already had three children. Having a very low income, what were they thinking? Oh yeah, they wanted a boy.
The genes get passed on regardless of gender so what is the big deal? Is it to preserve the name? Here in the US many females tackle this issue by keeping their maiden name hyphenated with their spouses name, thus preserving the childs lineage.
I have read so many times where certain cultures will abort the female offspring opting to hold out for a male. I just don't get it. With that logic, we would end up with too many males and very few females. Silly I think.
I suppose the thinking may be that a male can be a strong source of labor as opposed to a female, and in this case I would need to ponder a counterpoint. Yet, I think one should just accept what the powers above you have given.