SnowyCat2 - I am in no way supportive of this behavior, but if the MEN in those countries would take steps to change things, then those "stupid, pathetic, archaic dowry laws" could change. Things that have been imbedded in a culture for thousands of years are hard to change. You would not know this because you are probably American and American culture has only been around a short time when compared to the Asian countries.

So cultural mores trump common sense.

Just to expand on SnowCat2's comments, in countries that are still primarily agricultural [these countries are still moving throught their own industrialization] sons are more valued because they become stronger and more helpful in farming, where as daughters do not provide as much once puberty begins. In China, as industrialization takes hold daughters are becoming more valued because they can work in factories and are more likely to send money home then sons who will wish to marry and then have to support both wife and parents.
From our cultrual perspective in the West, where we have already moved through our industrial period, this may be hard to comprehend, but the Eastern countries are burgoning quickly and will, I am sure, begin to value daughters as much as sons.