Choosing baby's sex--ethical?

Originally posted by Fen
A company, http://microsort.net, is offering to help with gender selection by sorting sperm prior to insemination. It's more effective to choose girls than boys, which seems appropriate since the main reason seems to avoid X-chromosme disorders that plague boys. But they also allow it for family balancing. Is this ethical? What if it leads to an imbalance in the sex ratio like India and China? Should that be up to individuals to choose?

Even if it's only for balancing a family, that could happen. More might choose to balance two boys with a girl, than the other way around.

People can already do this through amniocentesis, and a choice of whether to terminate or not. This seems less traumatic.
 
There are non-cultural reasons for wanting children of a particular sex. Some genetic disorders only occur in males or females. If a couple knows that they are predisposed to pass a disorder on to their children they would probably want to be able to select the sex.
 
People once thought that freezing eggs was unethical but there have been thousands of women who through various illnesses have stopped ovulating but have gone on to have healthy babies because they were advised to have their eggs harvested and frozen before treatments such as chemo.

The human race will eventually destroy itself through greed anyway.
 
There are non-cultural reasons for wanting children of a particular sex. Some genetic disorders only occur in males or females. If a couple knows that they are predisposed to pass a disorder on to their children they would probably want to be able to select the sex.

I know. I have one of those said disorders. While mine does sometimes occur in girls, it by far appears most often in boys. Does that have anything to do with how I am able to contribue to society? I find it ironic that those who advocate eugenically eliminating genetic disorders are most often your healthy societal members, not those who have disorders. My experience tells me that it is because they cannot even live with the IDEA of dealing with a disability.

That is a troublesome statement against people being delighted with who and what they are.
 
Would you want to be responsible?

What are the potential effects on the child? If a parent choses to make their child a boy, and he turns out to be gay....

The parent would be making their self responsible for an unholy amount of criticism etc. for any gender related diseases or birth defects..including homosexuality.

As a parent that chose your childs gender, and he becomes homosexual and is angry about being a rejected member of society, How would you feel?

just a question
 
diseases or birth defects..including homosexuality.
i hope like hell you didnt mean it like i read it, but it seams to me you just referd to homosexuality as disease or birth defect.
please correct me if im wrong on this.
homosexual and is angry about being a rejected member of society
since when are the words queer and reject synonims?


as for the original question, i see no problem. its better that they dont have a girl or boy if theyd just murder it if they did. btw by "murder it" i mean like drowning it in milk or somthing. i dont consider abortion murder.

wow... i just revealed alot about my persanle political position...
 
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The parent would be making their self responsible for an unholy amount of criticism etc. for any gender related diseases or birth defects..including homosexuality

I don't know where you got the idea, but just to let you know, homosexuality is NOT a disease!

As a parent that chose your childs gender, and he becomes homosexual and is angry about being a rejected member of society, How would you feel?

First, I'd like to say that homosexuality wouldn't be the problem. The problem would be teaching others /children to be prejudice. Nip it in the bud and start accepting people- look at their heart and their intentions..not their sexual preference, color etc...

Second, I'm not angry because I'm a lesbian. Not everyone is accepted in today's society, which is sad, but reality. Also, you can apply your statement, "being a rejected member" to kids who wear glasses, obese, etc. I won't take up any more space on this thread, as it detours from the topic, but I just had to say something.
 
Well, I've heard of some technology that allows the union of two ova, and produce a baby without the need of sperm. Imagine a society of just X chromosomes.

For a moment, the vision of an all-female, all-lesbian society just went FWOOM through my brain.

Eek. Scary. :eek:
 
scary HOT, maybe...

regarding what someone said to my last comment, i would tell you that things that i had nothing to do with affect me every day, but i can't just sit around bitching about it all the time. if someone else does something within their rights, and it's annoying or offensive, i just have to deal. do people have the right to choose the sex of their children, given that it's safe for the mother, and doesn't increase the rate of deformity? i say yes. so, if this causes a gender imblance, look for me to be going on with life and not bitching about it.

[note: homosexuality is not a deformity... idiot.]

as for 'eliminating' genetic disorders, i hope everyone continues to realize that the child produced, no matter the sex, would still have the same chance of being a carrier. choice of sex might decrease the physical expression of some disorders, but i'd guess that the resulting attitude would only increase the number of carriers.
 
Sperm-check is definitely better than infanticide, but it is still wrong – maybe not unethical, but simply wrong. If you want a baby, you should be ready to accept it and love it as a human being unconditionally – regardless its gender, sexual preference, IQ etc. Choosing gender is just first step – genetic “adjustments” might be the next one…
 
Maybe I'm just a simple bastard, but most ethical questions just don't seem all that complicated to me.
I'll restate the question it I see it.

Is it ethical for me to make a choice concerning a person that doesn't exist?
Hmm...
I would have to say yes.

The rest of the questions that come from me making that choice are standard fare. With all decisions, there comes repercussions. Being able to deal with the repercussions of one's actions isn't a question of ethics, but of personal responsibility.

If you feel that you may be unable to deal with the repercussions of a choice you have the ability to make, don't make one. However, choosing not to choose also has repercussions.
 
Hmm.

Why not make up a system where you can create embryos by mixing two egg cells, eliminate sperm altogether, and create this huge lesbian , all-female society?
 
Originally posted by Zero
Why not make up a system where you can create embryos by mixing two egg cells, eliminate sperm altogether, and create this huge lesbian , all-female society?

There is a very funny Polish film on this theme by Juliusz Machulski "Seksmisja" (Sexmission) from 1984. Might be available via some P2P program.
 
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