Gender Selection

The question is, why not allow parents to choose their gender solely based on preference? One of the main problems with this is that choosing gender may cause sexism, the belief that one gender is greater than another. Another problem could be gender imbalance, seeing that if many women chose to have girls, then in the future there would be an imbalance of gender, making it difficult to repopulate. Along with gender, scientists can also change the genetic code of an egg to make the baby more intelligent, or to have better health. Some problems with this could be that altering genes to make humans smarter could cause a “superior” race, therefore making people who have not had their genes altered looked down upon, and this would not be good for society. This also falls into the category of “designer baby syndrome,” which causes the parents to view their child as some sort of trophy, and that brings into question whether or not the parents are doing what is best for their child, and if they are having a child for selfish reasons. Another point Law

Yet another social issue deals with gender imbalance that could result from the technology. While “supporters accuse critics of exaggerating the threat posed by gender imbalance,” (“Gender Selection of Babies”) it can hardly be said to be exaggerated. It is true, with the possibility of designer babies comes the possibility of an imbalance in gender ratio. Supporters of the creation of genetically altered babies argue that couples don’t tend to choose one gender over another, that the choices are fairly equal. More goes into their decision than just personal preference, cultural influences also impact the decisions they make.

Medical professionals today can screen for certain genetic traits (genetic diseases and sex) with in vitro fertilization and preimplantation genetic diagnosis to obtain a healthy child, and reproductive technology continues to improve. With this in mind, the question arises whether sex selection is ethical. Julian Savulescu, Uehiro Professor of Practical Ethics at Oxford University, argues that sex selection is moral, based on his ethical principle of Procreative Beneficence: that “couples (or single reproducers) should select the child, of the possible children they could have, who is expected to have the best life, or at least as good a life as the others, based on the relevant, available information” [Savulescu 1]. Savulescu claims

Prenatal diagnosis being used as a term for abortion and sex selection is difficult to view because of the polar opposites that exist towards its morality. The best way to tackle this issue is thru virtue ethics. Each have different motives for the abortion. However, each have selfish ambitions for the future. Sex selection in one case, Ann, should consider that the child can be happy in the event there is no disease. Likewise, if the child does have the disease the child still holds equal to humanity for with or without disease we are all human and deserve life. This act is therefore immoral. June is self-interested purely based on personal feelings, hence, is immoral due to the fact that selfishness is not virtuous.

Having babies is a common part of life. Unfortunately, not every individual is able to do this due to biological or other issues. Infertility and being unable to bear a child due to issues such as orientation affect a lot of individuals and couples. According to Brezina and Zhao (2012), “worldwide, more than 70 million couples are afflicted with infertility” (p.1). Sadly, this creates a lot of stress and heartache for those who wish to have kids but are unable to. Beginning in 1978, this changed when the first in vitro (IVF) baby was born. The birth of Louise Brown also commonly known as the first test tube baby was very important in the explosion of IVF in the years to come. This gave hope to many individuals and couples throughout the world

However, this is a heavy role to place on a child. The little girl that is born might not like pink. She might enjoy playing sports, and connect better with her father than her mother. Paying for a child’s sex isn’t going to guarantee that they stick to gender normative roles. Imagine the weight on a designer baby's shoulders! There would be an obvious push to stick to the gender norms that the parents clearly are looking for in the child (Sidhu;

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.

Abortion in China is a very big issue but unfortunately is mostly executed when the sex of the child is female. Sex selection in China is fostered by a limiting social structure that disallows women from performing the roles that men perform, and relegates women to a lower status level. Individual parents and individual families benefit concretely from having a son born into the family, while society, and girls and women as a group, are harmed by the widespread practice of sex selection. Sex selection reinforces oppression of women. Sex selection is best addressed by ameliorating the situations of women and girls, increasing their autonomy, and elevating their status in society. One might argue that restricting abortion, prohibiting sex selection, and prohibiting sex determination would eliminate sex selective abortion.

When a child is conceived, there are many things that take place. Once there is fertilization with the sperm and egg coming together there is a zygote that is formed. This zygote is the first cell of the baby that will develop over the course of forty weeks. Many parents cannot wait for their baby to be born and have a lot of planning to do in preparation. They want to know as soon as possible what the gender is, and how they want to give birth and where they can do so.

So in case of a what they call a “state of medical emergency, ” where there is an urge to give the child a sex, doctors take immediate action and pressure the parents to take a quick decision (Hanley). “Adult "patients" were simply left behind—traumatized by unwritten rules of silence and forced surgeries, deprived of sexual sensation and riddled with painful scars”(Zwischengeschlecht.org). Since most of these procedures are done with mere facts of what that Childs chromosome count or sex really is, these children often face traumatic events that often lead them to take drastic decisions, so drastic that many even consider suicide as an open doorway way to end their confusion. In the long run when these children try to identify their true sex, they have a tendency to suffer from psychological traumas. Many of them find out that they are able to carry a baby in their body, while others feel that they were given the wrong sex, and then there are the ones that had their testes removed who feel more identified with the masculine gender. Scientist insist on giving every condition a terminology which creates the separation amongst individuals. The ignorance of scientist is the reason why these individuals feel as if they are excluded from the normal world. Scientist cannot fix or even try to manipulate the sexual preference of a human body. Inter-sex individuals do not need

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

Doctors should not be allowed to assign gender and perform medically unnecessary surgeries that permanently alter the gender of a child. The decision of assigning gender should be postponed until the child reaches puberty.

Also the benefits of being able to choose the offspring can restore balance within some nations whose gender ratio is severely out of balance. Not only has this, to pick the characteristics of your child had the possibility to evolve the human race to the next level of understanding and evolution/enlightenment.

Some couples really do not care as to what will be the gender of their baby. Having a gender preference is considered to be a devalued concept these days. Girls are now competing with the opposite gender in all areas and are succeeding, research has proven this fact. However, people today still think that our society is still a male-dominated one however; this concept has been proven to be wrong. There are some people are very much interested to determine the gender of their baby. Some couples are even willful to spend large amounts of money on different procedures such as artificial insemination along with ensuring that a healthy baby is born.

As of now, I don't believe interfering with the natural process would be beneficial to our future. It plays with natural selection and genetic variation among any species is important to its survival and development. It could be potentially harmful to the development of the child and the mother undergoing a procedure in the early stages. Let alone, the sociological affects it would have by implying that one sex is preferable to the other. It could help lower the numbers among infanticide, however more issues would arise. Some countries are extremely bias towards one sex (usually males), which could dramatically affect the balance of males and females. If you want to be a parent then you have to deal with what actually being a parent means--loving