Sex selection

Karlee Jakobe

Dallas Center- Grimes High School

Yes, choosing the sex of your child is now conceivably possible, thanks to advances in

fertility treatments that allow doctors to identify male and female embryos. As of 2014

the top minds of medicine are now saying the days of anxiousness and ambiguity

surrounding your to-be childs sex are behind you. This is done through preimplantation

genetic testing, in which cells from the embryo are removed in order to determine the

potential babys sex, and then inserting embryos containing the desired sex into the

uterus. Unfortunately for wishful parents to-be, today's sex-selection options aren't

exactly affordable or available. The most accurate sex-selection methods are the most

expensive (tens of thousands of dollars) and often mean you have to undergo invasive

infertility treatments and take fertility drugs with potential side effects. Furthermore, you

will have to meet strict requirements. Typically you won't be eligible unless you're

married and already have at least one child of the opposite sex you're trying for.

While the ability to select the sex of ones developing child is a relatively new

controversy, like any other atypical ethical dilemma it is the duality (the ability to

generate the dual of any logical expression) from which the conflict emerges. By taking

a look at written arguments and testimony from both sides of this dilemma, it is clear

that the two demographics that emerge are scientologists and religious zealots.

On one hand, scientologists view sex selection as an option for couples who

want to avoid passing sex-linked genetic disorders to their children. It also might appeal

to parents who have children of one sex and want to have a child of the other sex. (This

is sometimes called "family balancing.") While this opinion and technology are relatively

young, it harkens back to a class article that claimed our morals evolve with our culture.
A persons morals are their standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is

not acceptable for them to do. One could argue that this moral evolved from the

mainstream medias newfound obsession with bullies, specifically the dominant

subgroup of a population being the bully.

According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, 70.6% of the adult

population identified themselves as Christians, with 46.5% professing attendance at a

variety of churches that could be considered Protestant, and 20.8% professing Roman

Catholic beliefs. Those statistics in tandem with the medias newfound obsession with

denoting bullies, leads scientology to play the victim. So its easy to rally behind them

and share their conviction, or firmly held belief. Furthermore, scientology also advocates

for as sex selection an expression of reproductive rights, initiated and pursued by

women, and as a sign of female empowerment that allows for couples to make well-

informed family planning decisions by preventing occurrences of unintended pregnancy

and abortion, and minimized intimate partner violence and/or child neglect. The final

verdict and most recent activity with regards to this moral dilemma came when The

Ethics Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine concluded that it is

ethically appropriate to employ these new reproductive technologies to avoid the birth of

children suffering from X-linked genetic disorders-but for nothing further. This is where

these impossible standards and benchmarks came into place for potential sex selectors,

one might argue that lawmakers in Washington are still hesitant on this sure fire way to

select the sex of ones baby.

On the other side of this duality, this is an extremely intrusive operation which

harkens back to an age-old ethical dilemma coined by some of the oldest religious
philosophers: should we play God? Many religious men and women would consider this

process secular in nature, they denote sex selection as an earthly and profane process

used to defy Gods plan. Referring back to our article regarding the origin of morality,

where did the origin of this argument come from? Multiple sociologists point to Mary

Shelleys Frankenstein as an early and predominant way to explicate religious zealots

fears regarding life and its creation.

According to Yale Universitys Anthology of Ideas, Shelleys Frankenstein simply

warns against playing God by intricately showing the reader the dire consequences that

come with not asking if it should be done just because its possible. So, what could be

the dire consequences that religious zealots are so afraid of? According to CNN and

psychological correspondent Mark Sauer-so far there is no evidence, at least in the

United States, that giving couples the option of selecting the sex of their child could lead

to a surplus of girls or boys. "Let's face it, there is discrimination against women, but I

don't sense in the practice of assisted reproductive technology, at least in my

experience, there is an overwhelming bias" toward one sex or the other, Sauer said.

There are concerns, particularly in some Asian countries, about societies valuing

boys more than girls, "but to some extent this could be a cultural stereotype," said

Brendan Foht, assistant editor of The New Atlantic, a journal that publishes articles by

experts and the general public on bioethical issues. Even if sex selection is not likely to

skew the gender ratio in the United States anytime soon, Foht addresses religious

concern that parents should not have this level of control over their offspring. "Sex

selection kind of undermines the concept of unconditional love and obligation by making
the love conditional upon the child being a certain thing, in this case, a boy or a girl,"

Foht said.

My opinion on this is simple and brief, while we have the technology to choose the sex

of our babies I view it as wrong, Your child should not be picked and chosen it should

have the freedom from birth to be its own individual when you choose the sex you are

instantly taking away that freedom, if you choose their sex what else are you going to

control in their life?