Choosing The Sex Of Their Offspring

Evolutionary psychologists have focused on Darwin’s principle of natural selection to explain the fact that genes interact and adapt to their surroundings. Their theory shows that in order to protect and promote the species’ survival, the genes interact resulting in individual personality traits, such as impulsivity and aggression. They further attempt to expand on this theory by saying that our genetics predetermine our mate selection and gender differences in sexuality. This fuels the debate concerning why we choose our mate, and whether or not the way we are raised will determine if will be heterosexual or homosexual.

Boys are to be the producer of descendants. With technology such as ultrasounds, people have the option of whether or not to keep a baby preferably if it was a boy it would survive and if it was a girl it would most likely be aborted.

Sexual selection was an idea proposed by Darwin and refers to the process in which males and females attempt to maximize their chances of reproductive success. Within a species there are certain characteristics that make individuals attractive to potential mates. An example of this is in peacocks, female peacocks are attracted to males with long brightly colored tails, even though this makes them easier to be spotted by predators. This characteristic then evolves within the species due to how males with this characteristic have a higher chance of reproductive success and their characteristics being passed on to surviving offspring.

Gender being ‘biologically determined’ means that whether gender is inherited or passed down by genetics. If a person is a man or woman, (which is usually called ‘The Sex’), that is biologically determined because they inherit the chromosomes to be born a man, or to be born as a woman. In the early 1970’s sex was described by “biology as: anatomy, hormones, and physiology” (West and Zimmerman 1987). Apart from gender being a biological factor, there are other things which are not biologically determined; “Gender was an achieved status, which was constructed through psychological, cultural and social means” (West and Zimmerman1987). Hence the answer

“The preference for male children is further emphasized by the finding that parents are more likely to continue having children if they have only girls than if they have only boys. Reasons given by women for their preference for sons are to please their husbands, to carry on the family name, and to be a companion to the husband.” (Witt, n.p.) There are also many more pieces of important evidence.

Now generally speaking humans would prefer boys as seen in the study made by Princeton University “- If Americans could have only one child, they would prefer that it be a boy rather than a girl, by a 40% to 28%”. In source B it states “ACOG advocates prohibiting sex selection because of its potential to lead to sex discrimination against women in society.” This would largely damage our ecosystem as we would have an issue as we already do in China, where we would have more males to females. This would produce a large decrease in children and would result in many men dying without marriage or even a

Home life is a core area that can be the biggest influence on ones opinions of gender roles. The content of the article “Parental Influence on Children’s Socialization to Gender Roles” written by Susan Witt introduces where stereotypical gender association derives. Gender roles can easily be adopted through the household and when children are placed in an environment where it is easily transmitted through the parents’ then that child will follow their parents’ influences (Witt, par. 1). Schooling, media, and society are also large influences on children at a young age to behave a certain way. Self-concept is also a large chunk of the way children see themselves when they begin to grow and criticism from parents can be a large influence on shaping that child’s perspective (Witt, par. 3).

‘Gender should not be regarded merely as a matter of chromosomes. It is partly a psychological question, one of self-perception, and partly a social question, how society perceives the individual.’

Women are told motherhood is a possible consequence of their willingness to engage in sexual intercourse should they fail to use contraceptives effectively. This argument implies the role of sexual intercourse for women as the obligation to carry their fetus to term, which is more of a dictatorial argument of the role of a woman. It lacks accountability towards the role and responsibility of the father in these situations, suggesting they are not bound by the same duty. Similar to the sexism this debate seemingly overlooks, irrational thinking also cloud the way of logical

One may object this mild form of discrimination can be justified in a society that treats its born members in a non-sexist way. Steinbock believes there is nothing inherently immoral about sex selection. He reasons sex selection is, in itself, just a choice which is a parental right, noting that even if there is a correlation in some cultures between sex selection and oppression of women, this does not imply that sex selection causes the oppression or that eliminating sex selection will stop it

The WHO states that there are three core motivations for engaging in sex determination and sex selection which include “medical reasons such as preventing the birth of children affected or at risk of X-linked disorders; family balancing reasons where couples choose to have a child of one sex because they already have one or more children of the other sex; and gender preference reason often in favor of male offspring stemming from cultural, social, and economic bias in favor of male children and as a result of policies requiring couples to limit reproduction to one child, as in China.” In countries such as India and China, it is apparent that women can be harmed by sex selection

Parent understand that their girls are a burden and their sons are a gift, and this is what their sons and daughters grow up believing. The dowry placed on girls plays greatly into the sex-selected abortion rate in India. Boys are plainly and simply a better financial investment. Boys will not cost the parents money for marriage, in fact, with a marriage, they are guaranteed to make the parents money. Parents forced with the decision to have a girl and deal with the financial consequences, or abort and hope and pray for better luck in the gender of their child next time around. Quite often they chose the

sex are innate, we can look at the ways we raise kids as an index to

As science advances, it is becoming very common for parents from all over the world to select their babies gender by abortion. However, this trend is unacceptable and detrimental to the natural balance of things, society and the future of humanity.

Sexual selection can best be described by the definition given by Darwin himself. Sexual selection is “the advantage which certain individuals have over other individuals of the same species solely in respect of reproduction” (Hosken et al, 2011). Sexual selection occurs throughout the animal kingdom, where male frogs dominate through the depth of their croak, and certain peacocks reign superior based on the colour and intricate detail on their tails. They remain superior to their lesser counterparts as they bear more admirable characteristics, from which they are chosen by females of the same species.