Choosing baby's sex--ethical?

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by Fen, Sep 1, 2003.

  1. Fen Registered Senior Member

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    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.
     
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  3. sargentlard Save the whales motherfucker Valued Senior Member

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    At one point in time In China killing of new born girls was so rampant that the 90% of the reported new born child births were boys. In very undeveloped parts in India girls are still drowned in milk as soon as they are born.

    Choosing the sex of the baby isn't unethical in my POV but people will surely use it for very wrong and ignorant purposes.
     
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  5. Fen Registered Senior Member

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    Well, surely it's a different situation when you're murdering new born girls than just sorting sperm out. But the result is the same, a population imbalance. Should individual freedom win out? What if we're left with too many females (see what happens after major wars, it's not good)?
     
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  7. jps Valued Senior Member

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    I don't see any ethical problem with it at all.
    A balanced male/female ratio is not sufficient reason to require people to have children they don't want.
     
  8. sargentlard Save the whales motherfucker Valued Senior Member

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    Such was the predicament after WWII but humanity seems to be fine now. It isn't unethical but like i said people will use it for greedy purposes but technically if it isn't unethical then they aren't being wrong are they choosing only males.

    Many do not realize girls and boys harbor equal intellectual potential.
     
  9. HarmonyStar Harmony the Star Registered Senior Member

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    Let's look at this matter statistically

    You'd have to agree that we have quite a substantial world population. If every person chose the sex of their baby, due to large numbers, there would probably be a 50/50 result of males and females.

    And anyway, as if the African niggers, South Pacific tree monkeys, and 3rd world Indians are ever going to have access to this sort of technology.

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  10. Silivren Weird, yo Registered Senior Member

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    You trying to be offensive?

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    Anyways.... Hrm. I don't think it would be too much of a problem, considering it would probably cost a large amount of money to have it done, and many people would still want the suprise of a boy or a girl. If they want to do it, i say go for it.... It's unlikely the population would become too unbalanced.
     
  11. Xevious Truth Beyond Logic Registered Senior Member

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    A very interesting point of view, indeed. Who cares about how it might effect the life of the child growing up and society? If I have the power, I should exercise it.
     
  12. sargentlard Save the whales motherfucker Valued Senior Member

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    Wanna bet?
     
  13. otheadp Banned Banned

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    i've read somewhere (National Geographic? ..can't remember) that because of this practice there's a shortage of 40,000,000 females in china. families are marrying cousins and even siblings. their babies are born deaf or blind or underdevelopped.

    pretty sad.

    choosing baby's sex.....hmm.
    unethical? no.
    but it can have reprecussions in the future.

    personally, i'll do it the old fashioned way.
     
  14. Xevious Truth Beyond Logic Registered Senior Member

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    We are getting to the point that we humans can do most anything we want, and the old questions of "SHOULD WE" versus "CAN WE" becomes an issue.
     
  15. sargentlard Save the whales motherfucker Valued Senior Member

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    Well we are still some way far off from the ultimate CAN WE?...but it's only a matter of a few years till that stage. But if you really think about it SHOULD WE instead of CAN WE has been a prevelnt issue for a while now.....abortion for one comes to mind right away. On many levels plastic surgery could be considered a an example though it goes without saying that plastic surgery is a lot less of a taboo issue than abortion.
     
  16. ScrollMaker I Make Scrolls Registered Senior Member

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    It's called evolution. They make stupid mistakes, they die out.

    Edit: That's not to sound racist, since nuclear activity will probably kill millions of Americans.
     
  17. mouse can't sing, can't dance Registered Senior Member

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    My first reaction would be that gender selection is ethical, if the chance of having a genetically transferable disease is higher for one of the sexes.

    E.g. if you, as a parent, happen to be genetically inclined to give your son a high change of prostate cancer, the option to choose a girl instead becomes very attractive.
     
  18. fadingCaptain are you a robot? Valued Senior Member

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    Why would it not be ethical? There is no reason we shouldn't be allowed to choose gender. Allowing people choice and freedom is a good thing last I checked.
     
  19. Xevious Truth Beyond Logic Registered Senior Member

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    You want to begin practicing eugenics? We've seen what that does already when a civilization practices that on a large scale.
     
  20. thoughtpol Registered Member

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    what does it matter if an imbalance occurs? it'll be sorted out eventually... [maybe someone should fill me in on the post-WWII problem]
     
  21. Xevious Truth Beyond Logic Registered Senior Member

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    That might be, but on the other hand you will have a lot of societal problems. What you just said was "Who cares if it makes a mess or not? We will pick up the pieces later." Worst case you could be talking throwing society totally out of wack, at minimum you are going to polarize gender politics.

    Are you sure that is such a good idea? Just because you can, does that mean you should?
     
  22. thoughtpol Registered Member

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    no! of course we shouldn't knowingly screw everything up. but, we get what we deserve, and if a noticeable percentage of us prefer boys to girls, or girls to boys, then we will deserve whatever happens. but making it illegal would be innefective. if this is possible, it will happen. so why not just relegate oneself to the position that, no matter how bad the gender imbalance, the world will not END, and forget about it?
     
  23. Xevious Truth Beyond Logic Registered Senior Member

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    An interesting thought... in the mean time, those who had nothing to do with the cause of the societal fallout will ALSO have to deal with the consequences. Making it illigal may not completely stop it, but it sure as heck makes it a lot harder to do. If you don't believe me, you need only be reminded of the price of cocaine and marajuana in the US versus what it would be if it was legal.
     

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