Sex selection: A dangerous road to toddle down

TownHall.com ^ | Wednesday, January 21, 2004 | by Kathleen Parker

[JohnHuang2]

When so much can be known, not knowing is increasingly appealing.

The latest advance in "knowing," creepily called "preimplantation genetic diagnosis," allows prospective parents not only to know, but to select the sex of their barely conceived offspring.

Always wanted a bouncing baby boy but keep having girls? No problem. PGD has taken the guesswork out of baby-making and the randomness of birth as we have always known it.

A Newsweek article about the new science of sex selection features happy couples who got the girl or boy they wanted, as well as critics of the latest "choice." Not everyone is swooning over this new advance given the myriad ethical issues that arise any time humans ratchet up their god-like powers.

Just because we can, should we? And who should decide? Is this yet another place government doesn't belong? If not a matter for government oversight, then who should decide what we do with human life in all its permutations - pre-born, test-tubed, sperm-selected and ova-donated.

[JohnHuang2]

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Quote of the Day by MJY1288

[PokeyJoe]

The perfect subject to bring gay rights activists into a pro-life position.

My wife and I are trying to have a baby. We would prefer to have a straight girl.

Straight girl? huh? What do you mean?

Yes, we found out that there is this defective gene, commonly called a "gay gene" that indicates whether a child will be born gay. We decided that we are going to have our fetus tissues tested for the presence of this "gay gene" - and if the test comes back positive, we'll simply abort the fetus tissue.

That's horrible. There are plenty of great people who are gay. Why on earth would you want to abort a baby simply because it's going to be gay?"

It's our choice.

*wide eyes*

Welcome another convert to the pro-life movement with a cup of coffee.

[Think free or die]

When I see my two sons playing, fighting and just hanging out together, I can't imagine them any other way. I've had the privilege of learning about the world of boys and men from an altogether new perspective. I'll just have to form those mom-daughter bonds with my daughters-in-law or granddaughters one day! I hate to think what I might have missed if I'd been able to select them for myself. I wouldn't have known what to ask for. The richness of human experience is far greater with unpredictability thrown in.

[jwalburg]

So much for the future of girls. Recently someone released figures showing that fathers of boys were much more likely to stay with mothers than fathers of girls. Men know this. Women know this.

[olivia3boys]

Actually, according to the Newsweek article (I think I read this there) in the U.S. the vast majority of people who use the MicroSort method for sex selection are couples who have 2-3 or more BOYS and are trying for a girl. That may be partly because the MicroSort method happens to work better for girls (90% success rate vs. 75% or so for boys).

[MHGinTN]

JH, the truth glares out but is ignored "... allows prospective parents not only to know, but to select the sex of their barely conceived offspring." 'Barely conceived, BUT CONCEIVED already, not awaiting conception! The truth is, what these 'parents' are being encouraged to do is kill thechildren that don't meet their desired status. Yes, kill the children, because an embryo, whether in a petri dish or uterus is the earliest age of an individual's lifetime already begun. Oh how enlightened is this selective killing! New Jersey has gone beyond even this, to embrace cannibalism of these embryonic individual lives!