Couple Aborts Twin Boys Because They Want a Girl Using IVF

politics daily ^ | 01.09.11 | David Gibson

[Coleus]

The story of an Australian couple who aborted twin boys because they want to use IVF to ensure they have a daughter is attracting a lot of attention, especially among pro-lifers, and understandably so since the case seems to foreshadow an ethics-free future of eugenics.  But the couple, who want a girl to replace the infant daughter they recently lost, is so far still barred by Australian law from pursuing their quest for a female baby. The state of Victoria, where the unnamed couple lives, does not allow sex selection using IVF unless it is done to avoid the risk of the baby's inheriting a genetic abnormality or disease.

An independent group, known as the Patient Review Panel, recently rejected the couple's bid, so they are taking their case to the next level, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which is to hear their arguments in March.  "After what we have been through we are due for a bit of luck. We want to be given the opportunity to have a girl," said the man. The couple already have three sons.  According to the Herald-Sun newspaper of Melbourne, which interviewed the couple, the woman, who is in her thirties, is "consumed by grief over the daughter who died soon after birth" and admits she has "become obsessed with having a daughter and it has become vital to her psychological health."

The husband told the newspaper that it was the couple's "right" to try this route. "It's ridiculous that sex selection is illegal, actually. For certain circumstances it should be legalized."  An Australian pioneer in IVF, Gab Kovacs, agreed. "I can't see how it could possibly harm anyone," he said.  "Laws should be made to protect people from things that are going to damage them. Why should we make this illegal? Who is this going to harm if this couple have their desire fulfilled?"  The couple told the Herald-Sun that if they lose their appeal they will go to the United States to conceive a girl. Unlike Australia and much of Europe, the U.S. does not regulate sex selection in embryos developed for IVF procedures, so couples from many countries come here to conceive.

If the couple does come to the United States, they could expect to generate as much notice as they have in Australia, even if what they want is not illegal.  When a prominent fertility clinic in California announced in 2009 that it would help prospective parents choose physical traits -- hair and eye color, for example -- as well as the gender of their child, it prompted so much outrage that the clinic was forced to put its plans on hold.  Sex-selective abortions also take place in some places in the United States, though the vast majority of Americans reject the practice as unethical, and because the procedure is often used to destroy female fetuses and preserves males.  That the Australia couple targeted their fetuses because they were boys certainly hasn't mollified American pro-life activists.

"[I]n a world where the IVF and sex-selection are technologically possible, the providence of God is not trusted, and laws pertaining to bioethics come to be based on what's possible rather than what's right, such battles are inevitable," Tom Crowe wrote at the web site of the conservative political lobby, CatholicVote.org.

[Twinkie]

“we want . . “

WE want!!!!
We WANT!!!! - WE WANT!!!! WE WE WE WE WE WE WE WE !!!!!
WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT!!!!!!!!!!

[longtermmemmory]

what if this was one of those situations with a genetic disease where only boys carry the recessive gene? Remember, reporters get facts wrong.

[Mrs. Don-o]

It can hardly be denied that IVF and abortion function as two sides of the same coin.

In both, the child is, functionally, a product or possession.

In IVF, craved as a possession. "My right to have the child I want."

In abortion, rejected as a possession."My right to dispose of the child I don't want."

In both cases: The determination that the child is there to supply what the adult needs, and not the other way around.

[mikey_hates_everything]

"After what we have been through we are due for a bit of luck. We want to be given the opportunity to have a girl,"

There should have been a "barf alert" posted with this article. Luck? Both of them should be struck down.

[naturalman1975]

Unfortunately it isn’t. In cases, where there is a genuine risk of a disease that affects only one sex, Australian law allows for sex selection through IVF. The fact that these parents do not have that option means that this is not a factor. The whole point of this is they want the right to select their child’s sex through IVF on non medical grounds - simply because they want a girl.

The whole abortion angle seems to be “You can’t make me have boys - I’ll just abort them - so why not let me choose.” It’s monstrous.

[Mrs. Don-o]

There must be tens of thousands of married couples who would have adopted those boys with joy beyond all telling.

"Parents" response: "We don't want you to love or be loved by anyone else. We'd rather see you dead."

Monstrous is the word.

[wardaddy]

I remember when Australia was a hyper masculine society.

I fond them very man oriented and rude to their women and they drank too much....but affable and funny.

1980s

Looks like the UK now.