Should parents be able to select the sex of their children using genetic testing?
24% (282 votes)
Yes
61% (725 votes)
No
15% (182 votes)
Maybe
Total votes: 1189
Your Comments, Thoughts, Questions, Ideas
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Who r u trying 2 b, God? U losers!
People should be able to pre-determine their childs sex because it will be THEIR child. Like any other property it belongs to them..
A person isn't property!
what the childs sex is should not matter. the parents should accept the baby boy or girl. it is gods plan.
Power to the sister!
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i think parents should decide what sex their children are if they are going to give birth to them peace out braaap
ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's totally wrong to go against what God wants for you to have. We're not Him. So we should'nt be able to change it. You should be happy with what He gives you! Let nature take it's course, NOT SCIENCE. If you want a certain sex then adopt, because you never know what you're gonna get until it happens.
the parents should be able to do whatever they want its their child and their life if you dont need to like it becuz its not your life. If you dont believe in what the parents are doing then more power to you for having your own opinion but leave people alone just stay out of other peoples buisiness and everyone will be happy what other people do is no ones buisness but their own. GET OVER IT!!!
that's what the black market is for.
What the heck is the black market... anyway, I think that you can if you wanted to, but if not the choice is yours.
The "black market" is where people trade in things that aren't legal to buy or sell.
If all parents were given a choice, would there be a large increase in the population of one sex?
yes there would be
Anyone who says that there would be an imense increase in one sex of the population is wrong. Different people have different ideas and different wants and desires. Some people want a girl, some people want a boy. To say that there would be a drastic increase in one sex could be considered either a feminist or male chauvanistic point of view, depending on who is saying this at this time. As I have stated in my other posts if more people realized God is in control they would not worry about the trivialities of would one sex begin to overpopulate the other.
yes, but was chooseing the gender of your child gods plan as well? I don't think so
You may be right but the US is the only country that considers girls to be somewhat equal to boys, If everyone had the choice to choose the gender of their child we wouls have a huge increese in mails, not much differnet then that of china, or india. Third world country is still behind the times and males are prefered over females.
I strongly agree with you.
i totally agree
i totally agree god made it how it was meant to be and it should stay that way!
I agree. God did made it this way and that how it should be like and stay like and it would be better that way.
well i think u should be aloud a choice when u have 3 or more of the same sex and really crave for the other sex i dont c any problem
it was also in god's plan to make us smart enough to learn how to do this stuff...
The children do not belong to the parents, they are their own person!
They are not property!
It is very rude and dissrespectful to call them property and declare that they have no RIGHTS!
Horse Crazy 101
u cant even try to b God!i think whho ever has done this ,this is the biggest sin i ever seen.
i dont think you should get to choose what the sex of your baby is
HUMANS ARE NOT PROPERTY AND IF YOU CAN'T DEAL WITH THE SEX OF YOUR CHILD YOU SHOULDN'T BE HAVING KIDS IN THE FIRST PLACE. IT'S NOT YOUR CHOICE, JUST LIKE IT IS NOT YOUR CHOICE TO TAKE ANOTHER'S LIFE.
thats right! if parents cant accept for what their child is, they are nothing more than irresponsible wannabees!
parents should obviously accept there child for who they are because they are part of the parent! the parents gave birth to them so to not accept your child is basically not accepting yourself. God created you for who you are!!!
children are not property to be choosen, returned, or given back
OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS ITS NOT LIKE YOUR CHANGING A BABY THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN CHOSEN AS A GIRL OR BOY YOUR JUST CHOOSING WHAT TO GET PREGNANT WITH YOUR NOT HAVING THE BABY THEN DECIDING IT SHOULD BE A BOY OR A GIRL THEY CHOOSE THE SEX BEFORE THEY FERTILIZE THE FRICKEN EGG WITH THE SPERM IF I WANT A GIRL IM GETTING A GIRL IVE ALREADY HAD 6 BOYS AND IF I WANT TO GO TO THE DOCTORS AND MAKE SURE THE SPERM THAT FERTILIZES MY EGG IS A GIRL ONE ITS MY CHOICE IM NOT TAKING ANYTHING AWAY FROM ANY LITTLE BOY IM SIMPLY MAKING IT EASIER FOR THE GIRL SPERM WHICH MAY NOT BEEN ABLE TO SURVIVE IN THE FIRST PLACE
Hmmm... I think you're talking about a technique known as "sperm sorting," which improves the chances of conceiving a child of the desired sex, but doesn't guarantee it.
In this thread, people are debating about a technique known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis, in which sperm and eggs are mixed in a lab to create embryos. A single cell is removed from each embryo, and analyzed to look for genetic diseases. Sex of the embryos is evident as well, and doctors can choose to try to implant only embryos of the desired sex. With PDG, while conception isn't guaranteed (sometimes embryos don't implant in the uterus), the sex of any resulting children is.
i think parents shouldn't choose the sex of thier child because i believe that God made the world and he should choose the sex of your child.
a child is not a persons property that people have rights if you think this way why dont u find a way to go a hundred or so years when people were slaves and owned u would fit right in, u should thank God that you can have kids SOME PEOPLE CANT!
What gives you the right to decide? If god intended us all to be the same sex the human race would be extinct!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, I can't believe you actually said that a person is property. Last time checked, i'm my own person, and although parents are a big part of my life, they can't choose my values and ideas.
How can it be their property. God made all of us unique for a reason, and you should be thankful for who they are!!
u can't "pre decide".....
u can't make what gender u want your child 2 b. and you can't compare children 2 property. ur child is what they r and u have 2 except them 4 it. not change or "pre-determine" their gender.
I don't know if someone already said this, but if parents are given the choice to choose the sex of their child, what will stop them from choosing other traits too. Like high, hair color, IQ, etc. Basically, turning a child into a thing where it can be modified and change. I can already imagine the future, babies’ designs on store shelves where parents walk around the aisles choosing the perfect baby.
THEIR child....? Since when are people property???? Having a child isn't like going to a drive thru window...you can't pick and choose what you want when it comes to a person....I hope you never have kids or a wife for that matter...they would lose all self identity and become YOUR PROPERTY!!!!
A child is not property. If it is, through your opinion sundog, then treat it like your property. if you have a playstation or console you dont attend to it 24-7 so that means you just leave your child like u do to your PROPERTY.
Sun Dog what if people decided that they all wanted to have the same sex of children and only a number of others and all humans on erth defered?(dissapered)
This is an interesting comment. Who do you think you are? To say that a child is the "property" of the parents makes that child something that could be easily disgarded if deemed not worthy of their love or protection any longer. I agree that it would be cool for people to decide if they wanted a boy or a girl, but come on, YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR!!! Children are a life, Created By God. They are not a property that should even be considered as some useable good that could be thrown away after it has been used.
god god god-we all have a choice-nomatter if that choice may be what others may or may not agree with!-some are wrong, and some are good.but it's still ours. for the people that believe in fairy tales or other crap that makes you feel "not alone 'well.....just deal with it-or dont-ur choice remember!?we have the technology and were free to use it... or not-i dont see it as a "property "issue- i see it as my own freakin decision issue
Parents should not be allowed to determine the sex of their child because what if something went wrong and it didn't work. The kid would feel like they don't matter
You should not be able to pre-determine the sex of your child. It has always been a natural thing and is going against the will of God. Your parents didn't do that to you, and in the process of doing that, you could ruin a child that could have grown up to be an amazing scientist or something that will help our chances of survival in our universe.
SO IF CHILDREN ARE PROPERTY OF THEIR PARENTS...DO YOU WANT YOUR PARENTS CONTROLING EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE?
Firstly a child isn't property and if everone starts selecting what gender their child should be then it could possibly cause an unbalance of genders in the worlds population. It really shouldn't matter what sex someone's baby is.
Hahhahahahahha I agree. 100%
excuse me!
i do not belong to anyone and i'm sure that everybody else believes they are there own person too.
so before you go making your obnoxious presumptions think about the facts.
A child is not property and i do hope you don't have any of your own! the poor things.
Babies are not property they are people and all should have the right to be born no matter what sex they all have the right and we don't want to end up having more of one sex than another, do we? I no I don't.
no one shud be able to becus they arent tha creator if they want to pick the sex of their child they shud get a dog!
I'm with you!
count me in
Well it seems that many people disagree with choosing the gender of a child because we are messing with "gods" creation.
WE CANT BRING GOD INTO THIS
WE HAVE NO IDEA IF THERE IS A GOD AND IF THERE IS HOW CAN WE SAY THAT GOD THINKS THAT IT IS WRONG TO CHOOSE THE GENDER OF A CHILD.
This isnt a debate about god, so dont bring any diety in it.
if there is no god, then how did the universe come to be? Sure the big bang but what was there before that, and before that? You cant explain it can you? well there you go. nothing can just be there, it has to be made, like everything else.
i agree completely. we shouldn't be messing with things that god designed by his own hands. he knows what's going to happen, and we shouldn't mess with that!!!
y would u want to ruin the suprise...... and if it really matters that mutch to u what your kids look like u have issues.
What about parents who are trying to avoid having a child with a potentially fatal sex-linked disease? Is it different then? Do they still have "issues?" And what if they're trying to avoid a sex-linked disease that ISN'T fatal, but causes significant mental or physical disabilities? Is that a good reason to actively determine the sex of a child?
It may seem right but God may plan for them to be with Jesus sooner than the rest of us.
Listen, liza, Just because your choosing the sex of a child doesnt mean they still wont get the disease, its coming from the womb of their mother, theyll still probably get the disease
Bra, you all mixed up.
Sex-linked dizeases ain't comin frum yo mutha's wizizomb. Theys in yo gizenes!
Gotta agree with the anonymous poster right above me: a sex-linked disease is not the same as a sexually-transmitted disease. A sex-linked disease is a genetic disease carried on a particular chromosome, and it affects children of one sex, but not the other. (Of course, "unaffected" children can be carriers, depending on the complicated genetics involved.) You don't get "exposed" to a sex-linked disease; from the moment that sperm and egg meet, you either have it or you don't.
Go to the Buzz Blog entry "Ethics and genetic testing."
After reading it, do you still think that parents who want to preselect the sex of their child are "losers"? (It's a legitimate opinion; I just want to provide more context for the poll question.)
everything comes out naturally; you shouldn't decide on the gender of your baby. it's like deciding who you want to have as a boss. it's just lame and lamer. ick.
Ok,I can see the appeal if you already have 4 or 5 boys and you really want a girl, but where do we draw the line?
The Ethics Committee of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has published their official position on the use of PGD to achieve "family balancing"--and they're not in favor of it.
This opinion is consistent with those of other expert groups, including the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development and Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority Code of Practice.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine also opposes the use of PGD for non-medical purposes, although they feel that pre-fertilization techniques such as sperm sorting--if proven safe and effective--would be ethically acceptable.
The ACOG statement makes no mention of pre-fertilization techniques, but it does say:
What do you think? In non-medical situations, is it ethical to use pre-fertilization techniques to conceive a child of a particular sex?
I do not think parents should care if there children are a girl or boy. They are the same person on the inside.
try talking to someone about the promble
totally agree!!!
we shouldnt have to chose how we want our children to look like
we should just except how thet turned out to be and live with it
its so not right
I totally disagree
there is more to a child than whether they are a boy or a girl.
Ablolutly not!!!!!!!
I would love for my children to be a surprise!!!!
Anonymous
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU DONT GET TO PICK THAT WOULD BE WRONG!
I ttly agree w/ u, dude!!!!!!
The right to choose should not be taken away, even though I would never consider this myself. It falls along the same principle that some religions don't believe that blood transfusions are not moral. However, no one would deny the right to have a blood transfusion to anyone in need of it. I realize this is a life and death example but the fact that the right to do things considered immoral to one religion should not be taken to encompass the entire society.
Absolutely i agree on your statement. soverignty should always remain in the hands of WE THE PEOPLE...People should not fear their governments...Governments should fear WE THE People...that's how America Came into being!
I don't see George Bush Fearing the people of America?
Forget about religious views. this is a matter of morality. This option is not nessisary at all. It is an option that is given to people because of science. What benifits does one have by choosing the sex of a child? regardless of how many boys or girls one already has there is no reason to had the right to choose.
In some cases, there ARE benefits to choosing the sex of a child. Not for "family balancing" or anything like that, but to eliminate the risk of fatal or severely debilitating sex-linked diseases. I think it's OK to use PGD in that case to conceive only children of the non-affected sex until science figures out a way to test for the disease itself at the same early stage of embryonic development.
To Liza,
I dont beleive that people should choose because of sex-linked diseases
what if they have the chromosomes that for either a male or female child would be born with a sex-linked diseases but they dont know if the child would have it or also just carry the chromosome you dont know until the child is in the second term or born and tested
i dont really think it matters unless the world gets an imbalance between the sexes
i agree with this person. we are not god and we shouldm't do this because it is not natural! as i always said, let nature take it's course!
i feel that it should happen naturally
Today i saw body worlds and it is wayy overated and out of porportion. Several of the exhibits were a little overdone and torn apart. However in conclusion it is worth going to for the learning experience.
people shouldnt be able to because then there might be a shortage
i agree withh u we shoulnt do anything like that bcz God can do anything he wants he made us and we should enjoy our life not ruin it and think we can be better than God.
thx samirr a 13 year old boy lol :)
right on dog
Having the ability to choose doesn't mean that parents will. It's not some fatastic scientific development that could lead to the destruction of family. Just like choosing when to have a child, the most likely application for this level of technology would simply enable parents to have one boy when they already have a girl. One needs to look at what good could come from it, versus what bad could result. What on earth could be so bad about this?
they should let God chose
I think that you have what your meant to have andd it should stay that way we shouldn't alter human genetics and human nature for our own pleasure.
Anyone here heard of Haemophilia?
it mostly affects males. 20 times more than females
If we chose the gender of the child we would be able cut the rates of Haemophilia by 2000%.
Other Hereditry disease will be eliminated
And in addition to what the last person said, if we dont want 2 play the role of god, why take medicines? If god wants us to die, according to some people we should.
Taking medicine may disturb what god wants. So if u believe we should change the gender because god is a factor, then dont take any medicines
So..do you actually only want females to be alive in this world just because Hereditry disease is more common among the males? Wouldn't this affect our whole cycle of life? - Jus wanna say that if you had a small flu...it doesn't mean you going to die..you take medicine to heal tt stupid flu..and besides whatever God wants us to do, no one will stop him
I don't think that the poster you're responding to was suggesting that all parents choose only girls. The point was that IF you're at risk for passing on a fatal or debilitating genetic disease, and you know it's sex linked, allowing parents to choose the unaffected sex might alleviate a lot of suffering.
I'm not quite following your second argument, though. I *think* that the post says that, if you believe that taking action against medical misfortune--such as a hereditary disease--is going against God's will, isn't taking medicine the same? And you say, no, it isn't, and besides we can't stop ourselves from doing what God wants us to do. So...doesn't it follow then that choosing a baby's sex might be part of the master plan?
If you changed 2000% of males into females we soon wouldn't have enough males to propogate the species. God in His infinite wisdom knows just how many males and how many females are needed--we do not. There are two things of which I am certain--There is a God; and you are not Him!
First of all, it's mathematically impossible to reduce something by 2000%. The most you can reduce something is 100%, at which point is is eliminated.
As for God and medicine, it is possible to envision illness as an obstacle or challenge God wants us to overcome. It is difficult to envision maleness or femaleness as such an obstacle.
i agree with you, it is for god to decide who lives and the sex of someone.also the majority of women want boys so would the whole world be run by men? i cant bear to think.
I see both sides of the issue, but please, don't drag your religion into this.
I say no to it, though.
I agree religion should be kept out but i do admit, there are not males in some countries.
I say that god made a girl for a reason and a boy for a reason so a parent should'nt be able to choose that is like sayin that you don't want your child to have a birth effect or for it to have green eyes or brown just think of the couples that would love to have chilren but can't thats like throwing it in their face sayen we have a choose of what our baby is!
I agree! Why would you want to determine the gender of your child in advance? That's perverse!
Disrregarding the fact that your reply looks like something a brain-dead monkey would write, I must say that I agree. Though maybe not from the stance that the parents are playing "God", as it is genetics, not God, that decided a babies outcome, I do think that somethings are best left alone. Babies are not computers. If you screw up making a baby, you can't return it to BestBuy and demand a refund. Just the same, you can't customize a baby, as then it would not be an offspring of the parents, but simply a creation from a lab. That itself brings in a realm of legal questions, enough so that I don't have time to type.
there is no god having children should just be one big surprise.
YES
AS A MUM OF 5 BOYS ,I THINK YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO CHOOSE THE SEX OF YOU CHILD,WHAT IS WRONG WITH BEING ABLE TO CHOOSE?
i think that people should be able to chose if they want a girl or a boy!
some times there are things that happen in life and you just have to suck it up and deal with it. we dont have control over everything that happens in our lives and the probelm with humans is that we think that we do. we cannot control what gender we are just as we cannot control the sun. sometimes you have to roll with the motion and if you are a girl and really dont want to be...tough luck. deal with it. j
well i don't know what the heck you are thinking but i don't like it!! let the gosh dang children deceide!!! jeeze!!! and just because you don't like what their opinion is you don't have to freak out and call them losers!!! ok, bye!!!
that is a very good piont cause if everybody got to pick what they wanted to be they would pick a girl cause girls rock!! then they would be over populated and then they would all be fighting over one guy and it would be a mess so just don' t do that ok? ok
peace out
alliecat
if you want a boy u should have one
i dont think that this is right we will all die
Why would that happen?
Lets try to take god out of the equation, does anyone have any thoughts why a parent should not be able to choose the sex. And for those who insist on using god as a reason is he not the one the gave us the ability to perform such an act. Consider parents like myself who have three boys and like to experience a baby girl in there lives and what she brings to the family. since we all know that the two are very different lifestyles and experiences
what people think is that you should be able to have a choice just like the male butterfly that can change gender maybe we should be able to choose our gender as well. quote from gil griaiom csi
I agree u guys are freaks!!!!! I mean I don't really care @ all. It wuz God's Choice.
HEK NO!!! what is this world comming toooo!!! no no no!
seriously the sex of your children is the BIGGEST surprise of anyones lives.. i think it would ruin EVERYTHING and life wouldnt have any surprises left....... i would be VERY angry if i were preggers and the doc asked if i wanted to make it a boy or a girl.... VERY PISSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats messed up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i agree with you
everyone needs varity
you should to be able to pick the sex and physical traits of your child. then you wouldn't end up with a mentally retarded baby or something. its just rediculious the scandal people are making this out to be.
that was rude
i agree it's totally wrong but some people with disease that only affect one sex need help so they can have i family.
agreed whats meant to be should be left alone
ok these are some weird questions but whatevr you all think about asking kids these questions cause like halfof them are like TINY!!!! okwell whatever
I have no idea at all!!!
if parrents cold decied you might be the same or of the opposit gender.
Just because we have this newly improved technology, it doesnt not mean that it should be used. Life is/and should be filled with little and big surprises. I we had the choice of everthing, how shallow and empty would our lives be?
You are totally right. Anonoymous, our lives would be shallow and empty with out surpises.
I think people should just be happy with what they get. If your that picky dont have a child!!!!What are going to if they spill on you lovely wardrobe???
I am still of the mind that genetic modification can be used for protective measures; such as if the parents carry a genetic disease that only affects one gender. Beyond that, it seems to easily lead to a slippery slope, and I think that this technology can be put to much better use than to make designer children, but I am still undecided about the involvement of laws in dictating these decisions. Genetic gender selection is better than infanticide of unwanted children, but is not a solution. Thankfully I think we have some time yet to fully explore and discuss legal, social, and ethical ramification before the technology is commonplace enough to need such laws.
I am just a bit concerned that it might affect the babie's health. Just an opinion.
yup
That is a good point Bubbles.
I think its up to the parents to pick thier child's gender because it could benifit the parents' life. For example, they might want a boy to help out on the farm. The only problem I see with this is that there whill be too many boys runnin around America.
I don't think it is necessarily MORALLY wrong. I just think it would be too boring to have everything predetermined about your kid. Why ruin the surprise?
Nature made things the way they are, just let it be.
that'd be cool.
That would be hard because we live in a society that is set on destroying it. Our best choice now would be to find a balance where nature and humans coexist. As Mr. Smith said in the matrix, "humans are more like viruses than mammals." I guess the earth would have to live with the virus known as humanity.
no it wouldn't
Naturals all the way
i dont want to be a girl
Are you serious? Ahhhhh
You really dont want to be a girl do want to be a boy or do you want to be an it!!! i for one like being a girl its fun!
I think they should be able to because the parents are always like "OH I always wanted a girl/boy!" So I think that if they choose they wouldn't hurt their kids feelings if they have any.
Hmmm...
Well, in many countries there is a definite cultural preference for boys over girls. In China, where couples are only allowed to have one child, some people abort pregnancies not because they're unwanted or because of medical problems, but because they find out that the baby is a girl. Right now, 120 boys are born for every 100 girls, and the ratio is even higher in some rural areas. (Worldwide, the ratio is 106 boys to every 100 girls.) Selection against girls is also happening in India. So right now it's not so great to be a female fetus, and within a generation, it won't be so great to be male if you're searching for a spouse.
Here in America, couples often say that they want two children, a girl and a boy. But they also say that they'd prefer the FIRST child be the boy. What if ultrasound or genetic analysis reveals that the first child is a girl? Or what if a couple already has a child of one sex, and the ultrasound or genetic analysis reveals that the second pregnancy is of the same sex? What if we were to become a nation of big brothers and little sisters? Would that have an effect on the way men and women relate to each other? Or the personalities, coping mechanisms, educations, and skill sets of men and women? (Birth order studies would seem to say "yes"...)
You're right that many parents say things like, "I always wanted a little girl." But what if the little girl you dreamed about turns out nothing like the child you imagined? What if she's very bookish, or a natural athlete, or hates pink and cuts all her hair off? What if the little boy you've always wanted doesn't want to throw around a baseball in the backyard with dad, or writes poetry, or grows his hair long and wears black nail polish? My point is that even when you think you're picking the child you want, you still aren't necessarily getting what you think you're getting.
But what if a couple already has a child with a sex-linked disease? Or knows that the birth of such a child is a possibility? Should they be allowed to choose the opposite sex? What if the couple is doing preimplantation genetic diagnosis not ONLY to screen out embryos of one sex, but also to look for embryos that might be able to provide stem cells or tissues that could cure an elder sibling?
This BBC site has much more about these issues.
Until 2004, couples in the UK could use PGD to screen embryos in order to prevent the birth of a child with a serious genetic disorder, but NOT to screen embryos in order to cause the birth of a child who is a tissue match for an older sibling.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which oversees these cases in the UK, felt it was unethical to create one human being for the primary purpose of helping another.
The rule has since been relaxed, and couples are now able to screen embryos in both scenarios.
What do you think about so-called "savior siblings"? Should parents be able to create subsequent children that benefit their older brothers and sisters? (Read a few other folks' opinions, if you like.)
A new paper published in the Procedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that, as gender imbalances grow when parents preferentially select boys over girls, we'll see rising levels of anti-social and violent behavior.
The Reuters news report says,
Wait a minute... are you saying that boys who like baseball don't write poetry? Or boys who write poetry don't like baseball? ;-)
Not at all.
I'm saying that people who actively prefer a child of one sex over a child of another are likely to be harboring a lot of sex stereotypes, or to have a very clear picture of what they want that child to be like. And children are confounding. They fall into stereotypes when you don't want them to, and avoid them when you're hoping to take advantage of said stereotypes. If you do too much imagining and planning, you're likely to miss all the crazy and awesome things that they do that you never could have imagined.
Someone posted that they'd need to pick their child's sex so they could decorate a nursery! And my whole point is that you just don't know what's appropriate for any child until you get to know them. So, in that case, and in the absence of a sex-linked health risk, why pick?
I honestly beleive that girls are different from boys. I have heard many heartbreaking stories about father and daughter not being able to get along ect ect by no means am I saying that your kids are your property, but your embryos and sperm are. They are part of your body. That is like saying: what if your finger doesn't want a manicure. god doesn't want manicures, HE likes nails as he created them.
I don't agree with you
i dont think they should choose the sex of their children.Why? because if its ment to be then its ment to be. And maybe their destined to be a boy/girl can you change mother nature? i dont think so! so why should we choose the sex of our future generation?! and that is a true fact coming from the pro: Ariana.S
I think the parents should be able to choose becuse it'd be helpful for this world.
...how...exactly...would that...be helpful...for..this...world??????????????????? ...how...
I think that parents should be able to choose because then we can have clones and superhumans this is a step on the way.
WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU WANT A CLONE?
Some people would like to know if their child will be a boy or a girl, it could come in handy when they need to decorate a baby room. I mean Iwould'nt want a navy blue room with ships if I'm going to be a girl.
But is interior decorating a reason to pick one sex over another? (Keep in mind that ultrasound can reveal a child's sex around the 20th week of pregnancy, and sometimes even earlier. But PGD reveals a child's sex before the embryo is implanted in the mother. So you'll not only know the child's sex, but you can actively select it before you're pregnant.)
Sometimes I feel like the only mom in America who didn't know (or WANT to know) the sex of either of my children before their births.
Plus, most of those kinds of reasons--want to prepare a room, have always wanted a little girl, hoping to use hand-me-downs from an older cousin--seem like a lot of projection to me. What if the little boy you select doesn't want a navy blue room with ships either? What if the little girl you picked does? What if the little girl you choose is nothing like the little girl you imagined? What if your child is a different size or born in the wrong season to reuse all those hand-me-downs?
But I'm not a parent faced with the possibility of a child with a sex-linked disease, either. (Color-blindness doesn't seem like a valid reason for selection against an embryo to me, but I'm not sure what I would do if faced with the possibility of a child with a potentially fatal sex-linked disease like Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Menkes syndrome or Hunter syndrome.) Not having to watch a child suffer and die would be a powerful motivator, for sure...
A newer, improved version of PGD, known as pre-implantation genetic haplotyping, is now available. The new test allows for much finer screening of embryos, expanding the range of disorders than can be tested for.
So glad to see that the majority of respondents understand the meaning of "selecting" for sex". It's not knowing the sex, it's deciding to kill a child based on something as delightful, unpredictable, and innocent as which 23rd chromosomes it has received. The lack of or presence of the Y is determined by the father, but the guilt of the abortion decision often weighs most heavily on the mother (for the rest of her life). It's not a trivial or frivolous topic - if we are truly honest with ourselves.
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) only works with the in vitro fertilization (IVF) technique. The woman takes drugs that cause her to ovulate, and her eggs are harvested, then mixed with a sperm sample. Fertilization happens outside the body. One or two embryos are selected for implantation, and hopefully an otherwise normal pregnancy results. With PGD, a cell is taken from an embryo a few days after fertilization, and the DNA from that cell is analyzed. This allows doctors to screen the embryo not only for sex, but also for a variety of genetic diseases. So parents can select only "perfect" embryos for implantation; the others are discarded or frozen.
Lots and lots of couples struggling with infertility use IVF. They don't all go through PGD, so the reasons for selection of one embryo and not another may be less obvious, but the issues are the same. The technique ALWAYS produces more embryos than can be used. Often, couples will have the surplus embryos frozen for use in later pregnancies. But there are a lot of "unused" embryos sitting in nitrogen tanks in fertility clinics around the country that will never be implanted. (These are the embryos that some people should be used for stem cell research. For more on that, go to our poll and blog entries: "Stem cell research breakthrough", "Lies in Korean stem cell research", and "British government approves human cloning project".)
In both cases, regular IVF or IVF with PGD, the selection takes place before implantation, so there's no need for abortion.
As for what to do with discarded embryos...Well, that's the subject of much debate. (Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance runs a pretty good site dealing with this issue and many others.)
no way!!!!!!!!
WHAT R U THINKING ? HECK NO!!!!!!!
NO NEVER IN A MILION YEARS
JUST DANCE
why??
I think that parents should be able to choose the sex of their baby if they want to. They dont have to if they dont want to, see its all about options in this world. Why not be able to choose, right?
um yeah, how about no, that is the stupidest idea ever, if we could choose the sex of our babies then why dont we just control everything in our lives like whether we have brown or blue eyes, if we are going to get sick or stupid stuff like that..it is not up to us to choose...we get what happens so deal with it!!
I agree with Anonymous, B!. You must be crazy to think that it is o.k. to pick the sex of their child!!
NO BECAUSE THEY DO NOT OWN YOU YOU ARE YOUR OWN PERSON
PGD can do much more than just tell you the sex of your child. It can help couples who would otherwise have a very slim chance of having a healthy child give birth to a healthy child. And not all genetic diseases that can be screened for are sex linked. The big question is where do you draw the line for screening. What if the child will have a predisposition for cancer? Is this worth screening for? And who should be able to make the decsion or "draw the line"?
I think there's a big difference between "reasonable quality of life" and "perfection."
Many cancers have onset later in life and can be treated, if not cured. They may shorten life, but they don't make all of life not worth living. Plus, a propensity toward cancer isn't a death sentence. It might be good to screen so would KNOW if your child had that predisposition and could take steps to improve their environment and lifestyle, but it's not a reason, I don't think, to reject an embryo.
The problem is that when there are a number of possible embryos and you have to choose between them, of course you're going to pick the "best" one or two for implantation. Why wouldn't you? IVF is expensive, and the "top quality" embryos have the best chance of implantation and survival, as well as yielding the healthiest babies. Still, it seems like such a slippery slope...
I'm not a fan of Kathleen Parker, but I think she has a point in her June 7 column for the Orlando Sentinel (and syndicated elsewhere, including the Pioneer Press). She's raging against elective abortions for fetuses with slight, and mostly correctable, abnormalities. PGD just moves the same debate to an earlier phase in the process.
Some of these cases seem so clear-cut and easy to decide, but others are really, really tough.
This letter, written by Patrick Wallace of Saint Paul, appeared in the June 14th Pioneer Press letters to the editor:
I dont know, where do you draw the line? Would you have wanted it chosen for you? We need more questions and less answers!
its inapropriet!!!!!!!!!!!
choseing how me want children to look like is wrong and not human!!!!!!!!!
how can humans not be human?
I think therfore I am is not apt. you should say: "I am, therefore I am"
its not its just the natural human body
because it is not right! Anyone who thinks it is o.k., is very,very,very,very weird
i don't want to be a boy
I see... Well good luck with that! Personally, I'm glad I'm a girl.
are you Insane? Get A LIfe, I mean choose it. U R not God, ya know?
u know that many people think that people need clones or many clones to do chores
It is not the way of life. If you think it is right, go get yourself a dog or cat or anohter pet.
God set up everything for a reason there is NO reason to change it now.
Horse Crazy 101
i like it a lot that youre getting the point to people about GOD alot! thanx horse crazy 101!
horsyhollygirl!
I think that if the parents want to choose the gender, then let them. This is coming from a guy with 7 brothers other than him. My parents prayed for a girl, and got me, the youngest boy out of 8. If my parents were willing (and 20 years younger) why shouldn't they have the option to see what it's like to raise a girl?
no you shouldn't be able to kill your baby if you don't want a boy or a girl!
choosing the sex of a child should be decided by pure genetics not by technology.
where's the fun in knowing beforehand?
If they could and your perents did it you would NOT be alive today! a lot of people will say 'yeah! i dont want to be alive!' but you being alive is part of GODS plan. NOT peoples plans!
parents shpuld accept the baby no matter what
No because God gets to choose!
i dont think it really matters
NO
because i think that way
Anonymous i say parents should accept the baby no matter what its is boy girl green or blue eyes blond brown red black hair. your so totally right
parents shouldnt have a choice because if it was more common to choose a certain gender eventually the world would not even be close to having even numbers of men and women and a baby is always exciting to parents girl or boy in most cases.
I believe that choosing the sex of your child is morally wrong. Who are you to build a human being according to your preference. It has never been your choice and it should remain that way.
I don't really know too much about it scientifically, but I think it is a personal choice even though I would never do it.
I believe that the gender of a child should be left on chance the way it is meant to because just looking at china you can see some of the problems of gender specific birth.
Why should you? I think should be proud that your child is whatever sex it was ment to be. So lets say that you wanted a boy. Will you kill your girl so you can try again. What kind of parents are you?!
NO! This is creepy, and it's new, so something could go wrong. Besides, if every parent decided on a girl, there would be no boys, and the whole world would be messed up. Besides, it's not so important that a family would need to have a girl or boy to go to those extremes.
Changing your childs sex is unethical. Every parent should be happy with the child that they get. You would love your children all the same, so there should be no need to determine the sex even if you wanted to. Let children grow up the way that they were meant to, they way they came to this world. Children aren't toys, and never have been, so don't mess around with their genetics. What would you do if messing with the genetics of your child, trying to change its gender, something else seems to change or go wrong?
Again, PGD doesn't allow parents to change a child's sex. It only works with in vitro fertilization, where eggs are fertilized outside the mother's body and then placed in the uterus, where (hopefully) a pregnancy results. With PGD, the embryos are screened for lots of traits--including, sometimes, sex--before they're placed in the uterus. So parents can, at least theoretically, choose male or female embryos before implantation.
There is no "messing with the genetics of your child." Clinicians screen for various traits, and don't implant the embryos with undesirable ones.
It makes me ethically uncomfortable EXCEPT in the case of serious sex-linked diseases. But the issue you raise is NOT a concern with PGD.
I think that parents shouldn't be able to choose their kids gender. A child is a miracle from god. He knows what is best for you. You should be glad to have a kid and you shouldn,t regret having one because it was a girl or boy. Be thankful for what you have.
u should love your child no matter what, including wether its boy or girl. a child is a blessing not something that could go wrong.
Why do we believe that your sex is such a big problem... How many of you would rather be the other sex? In truth, we adapt to what we are and love it... other than a few slightly "challenged" individuals. Now imagine what life would be like if your parents would have chosen a different route - Would you still have grown up the same way? Would you have still had the same high-school experience? Would you have grown up to be who you are today? No - the sad truth is that our sex does slightly change the way we grow up, starting as children, we are generally shy of one another and therefore make different friends, which later in life change our futures, we marry different people than you would if you were of the same sex, therefore altering the natural future - One change in one person's sex will alter gerneration upon generation. If you were meant to be a boy and marry Jill and have a child, now you are a girl and marry Bob and have a totally different child with a different future who then continues on this chain changes to the natural future... THINK ABOUT IT
Couples are traveling to the US from countries where PGD for sex selection purposes is not allowed, hoping to conceive children of the desired sex.
For me, it's clearly ethical to use PGD to identify embryos with major disorders. But it's hard for me to argue that it's ethical to use the technique solely to have a baby of one sex or the other.
The anti-arguments are easy: Is it really better to not exist at all than to be the "wrong" sex? And what does it mean if we treat a baby's sex as if it were a disease?
Anyone have any pro arguments? I'd really like to hear them!
you can't your child is a boy or girl! some people cnt have children at all n u shud feel blessed tht u can. by choosin the gender u or abusin the privelege! u'll b choosin wt ya want it 2 luk like next!
Oh! Wow!.. That is absolutly horrible!! If I were to have have children, I wouldn't even WANT to know what gender my child was going to be! Nevermind choosing it! That is also extremly sexist. And it could cause so many problems. Like say everyone wanted a boy... then where would the human race go? It would die off. Nature has a special way of making the amount of females and males close to 50% and 50%. So there are almost just as many females, as there all males. But if scientists go around saying that they can make it so you can choose the gender, that 1:1 ratio is gone. and it could be 1:10. That means we would evenchually die off. NOT GOOD!!!
you get what you get and you dont have a fit and because in some countries male is dominant so theey kill gurrrrrlllllzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i think that if this was possible the world would be crazier than it is now so this should never ever be a possibility
hello my name is shannon and im 13 years old, i have decided to investigate this issue with my best friend jessica. we have our own very strong veiws on the subject and have used this site for different sources of evidence, for and aganist. if anyone can send us some information and web sites, we will be extreamly greatful.
shannon and jessica.
hello my name is shannon and im 13 years old, i have decided to investigate this issue with my best friend jessica. we have our own very strong veiws on the subject and have used this site for different sources of evidence, for and aganist. if anyone can send us some information and web sites, we will be extreamly greatful.
shannon and jessica.
Hey Shannon and Jessica,
It's cool that you are interested in researching this. Here are a list of some websites that might help you out:
Good luck and feel free to post back your ideas or new information you find in your research.
what if all the men in your family suffered from testicle cancer? wouldn't you rather a female child. and by the way, god gave us the choice to have sex, and to conceive a child, he/she/it has, in the christian beleif, which is the official religion of australia, gave us the privlage of choice, it is us who chooses to conceive, it us who chooses to raise the child our way.
just remember, our morals may be wrong-to some, and right-to others
My husband already had that kind of cancer at age of 27 and he is doing just fine
I think that the parent should accept their child for who they are and not care weather it is a boy or a girl. They shouldn't be able to change fate and destiny.
Religion isn't a good reason against it, altough many people have brought up good
reasons for saying no. I concur.
To be able to "play God" be preselecting baby sex similar to selecting a color of shirt... i could see reasons for it. Prehaps to prevent sex linked genetic diseases...
there are pros and cons about ALL issues - especailly around the touchy subject of genethics. i personally dont agree with parents being able to determine the sex of their child - but - it eliminates possible sex linked diseases and possibly diminish selective abortions and abandonment of unwanted sex babies - due to cultural and religous reasons.
in certain circumstances i think parents should be able to choose the gender of thier child - if that child may have detromential effects due to thier sex.
think about it
I don't think parents should be able to decide the sex of their child...that's just not the way life works. The parents should just be happy with whatever sex their new child is going to be and live with it.
no. the parents should accept their child as he/she is. the gender of the child SHOULDN'T MATTER. it's unethical and unreasonable too predetermine a child's sex.
This is a little digression...
"Sex" refers to the properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of their reproductive roles. It's genetically and biologically determined. But "gender" is not. Gender is expressed in terms of masculinity or femininity, is part of how people perceive themselves and how they expect others to behave, and refers to the different roles and responsibilities attributed to men and women in a particular society. It's a social construct, and it's mostly culturally determined.
I don't know who said it originally, but the quote that helps me remember the difference is,
This is a recent development in the language, and not an entirely welcome one. "Gender" had long been a grammatical term; only lately has it been applied (or mis-applied) to social and psychological topics, confusing the heck out of everyone and cluttering up the language.
The mnemonic I grew up with was:
I would hope you would be happy with whatever your child turns out to be. Think about the number of couples that cant have children and then think about how selfish you are being by pre-determining sex. Let nature take its course and be glad your given the chance to!!
I'm trying to understand this argument.
I think you're saying that because there are lots of couples struggling with infertility, couples with a history of fatal or severely debilitating sex-linked diseases should just throw the dice and be happy about whatever outcome they get, even though the option of preimplantation genetic diagnosis means they don't have to?
This is a legitimate opinion. But I don't think I agree with it.
I think that this is a deeply personal decision, and one that can't be made for someone else. Many people do just as you suggest. And others don't. And I can see both sides.
hy im doing an essay on this topic
it really depends on the people, their religions, persnoal beleifs and all that jazz
it is entirely up the parents,
but i fon't think it should eb avai;;bale as an option
A new survey of fertility clinics suggests that almost half of them allow couples to choose the sex of the embryos they implant. However, the survey also suggested that sex selection for non-medical reasons was only done in 9% of embryo screenings.
me? As long as they love them im ok with it. God made us the way we are because he loves us, if u found out that your parents chouse your gender will u hate them.
It is not fair to select the gender of offspring just because nobody select us before, having childrend is always a blesseng no choise neither selection.
excactly!!!!!!!
No i don't think you should be able to choose the gender of your child but if you have some type of family history where someone has a genetic disease that procedures like pgd could cure then yes
This controversy should be banded by the government , as most people have already stated , YOUR NOT GOD stop trying to decide something thats not in your power to decide. if your looking for a certain sex of a baby and you only want it one way and oneway only maybe that "parent" is not ment to be a real parent. if a parent thinks that they will treat a child differently becasue its not the sex they wanted then you shouldnt become a parent becasue apparently its not that baby that you want its the idea !
you should not be allowed to choose your child's gender, you should love it either way. Gene therapy should not be used unless there is an illness. Get asl little tratment as possible for a healthy, natural birth.
no, i love little children
i fink we shouldnt choose the sex ov da child
no they shouldn't do that, i think that it is just wrong.
i dnt think you should be able to choose your babies gender thats so not right like totally!
Nature already produces more males than females, women live longer than men so that's why you will see statistics that say there are more women than men. It's younger men that are at a disadvantage in looking for mates in their age category. Odd how many young women complain so much about how hard it is to find a man. Any sort of gender bias will reveal itself if everyone could select the sex of their child. In many societies, particularly asian ones, the number of female births would plummet to almost nothing. Female infanticide in China and sex selected abortions in India have already produced a massive imbalance between the sexes. this became epidemic in these countries on a massive scale about a generation ago, the children, or should I say men, of this generation are just beginning to reach the age of maturity, they are looking for wives and not finding them. Many will immigrate to America looking for new live because they have none back home. Notice that the majority of immigrants from asian countries are men. Most americans (though they might deny it if you directly ask them) would favor male children, if the normal ratio of 106 male births to 100 female births was to shift to 125 male births to 100 female births, what would be the consequences for men and women? There is already a shortage of women in the reproductive years due to the natural imbalance, what if it were to become worse? Human beings are to stupid and shortsighted to be allowed to have the power to choose the sex of their child.
I believe that people can not choose the sex of male or female to be born..it depends on how god gives it to you.....thank you..
I think that wanting to change your child is wrong, not simply because of the fact I believe in God but, what you get is what you get, they are your own child. Why not let them be what was made? Why make them the perfection to what you want them to be, instead of the true person they are meant to be? I don't know, I can understand altering a gene to try fixing some kind of problem, but just to do it because you can doesn't make much sense to me. But hey, if you wana do that go for it, its your kid, but what if something were to go wrong? Things would be lots different than maybe what you started with. You would be left wondering what truely would have been.
PGD, or preimplantation genetic diagnosis (the technique being discussed here), doesn't involve changing an embryo's sex.
Instead, clinic staff take a careful look at each embryo created using the in vitro process. They perform a genetic analysis, looking for genetic diseases. But the analysis also reveals the embryo's sex.
And if there is a family history of a serious sex-linked genetic disease, the couple may request that only embryos of the unaffected sex be implanted in an attempt to achieve pregnancy.
Of course, some people have realized that the technique can also guarantee that any baby born is a baby of the desired sex, whatever that is. But most clinics won't do PGD just for the purposes of sex selection. And going through the in vitro process is risky, uncomfortable, and extremely expensive. So hopefully PGD isn't being abused...
as a mum to 5 boys,i would love to have a girl,what is wrong with choosing the sex of your baby,
We are currently undergoing IVF with PGD. We are selecting a girl. We have 3 boys. Our first attempt be had just 2 healthy post PGD embryos, 1B 1G, froze the B and transfered the G. It did not take. This attempt we had just 1 healthy embryo a G. If it had been a B, we would have fozen it and tried 1 more time for a girl. In all, we have created 19 embryos that have made it to day 5, only 3 were healthy. They are not living beings until they begin to sustain life without assistance. We naver had 19 viable people, so far, we have had none. Our choices are our own, healthy happy children. We hope to add a girl to our healthy happy boys.
if you care about what kind of sex your kid is, then you would spare the inhumanity by just using a condom.....
no!!!!!!!!!!!! wht r u thinkin?
I think the parents should be able to chose the childs sex
i think this question is ridiculous
i think that the parents shouldn't be able to choose what sex their child should be. it's up to god or whoever you beleive in. It shouldn't matter to you. there's a reason why you can't choose already. if you were supposed to be able to, you would already be doing it.
i think that parents should be able to choose the specific sex that they want their baby to be! this process could be good news for couples that can only have a baby of one sex!
rite i think that it is very rong to choose the sex of your baby.. cos u shud jst let it cum naturally and love a boy or a girl.. so stop being sad choosing the sex of your baby
Why should people care what gender their child is, If they love them that should be all that matters!!!!!!!!!!
I think that it is wrong for parents to pick the gender of their child. Yeah it is there child but God made plans and whatever your child becomes you should be happy with. You should accept your child for who they are and love them no matter what and not descriminate against them because of what gender they are. I think that it's wrong! Plus by choosing the gender of your child could cause birth defects and other things like that. Wouldn't you rather have a healthy baby!
This technique--in vitro fertilization combined with preimplantation genetic diagnosis--is actually used to PREVENT fatal or severely debilitating sex-linked genetic diseases and INCREASE the odds for some families to conceive healthy babies.
uhhhhh, no i'm not trying to be god. You have to ask yourself though, is there even a god?
If God didn't want this to happen, we wouldn't have these ideas. Some people dont even start to begin to understand the limitless possibilities of man.
Do you guys even understand why this process is used? It isnt used for picking one gender over another, its for medical reasons. If you need a bone marrow donor, you can create one by giving him or her the specific genes for that type of marrow. It is also used to avoid sex-linked diseases that only one gender carries. If you could avoid being a boy and having hemophilia, would you take it? or would you like to be a boy and suffer from the disease? Think about it. Also dont bring religion into the argument, what do you call medicine then? Shouldnt you all rely on God to make you better instead of using medicine? You guys are very hypocritical.
I don't think so.
Then you are ignorant
Whoa Glen!! chill your face, just because they dont agree wit you doesnt mean their ignorant, coming from someone who studyed this its NOT for medical reasons, you need to check your resources again!
Parents should be able to choose what gender the child is. This hurts no-one as long as a balanced ratio is kept. It is not killing or harming anyone or anything like abortion.
Please keep scientific views, I see a lot of you are religious fanatics ignorantly preaching about god, assuming that everyone has to believe in the same god as you. This is called bigotry. Please stop and thank you.
Again; parents should be allowed a free choice of selecting their childs gender, my fiance and I only want sons and plan to use science to achieve this, if anyone attempts to tell us "god" forbids it and deprives us of our freedom, we will most likely take legal action and contact a civil rights firm.
no they shouldnt because if god wanted you to change the sex of ur child then he wouldve just left it blank
like really whatever he gives you then youre susosped to have that way.
Many people agree with you.
But I want to clarify: no one is CHANGING a baby's sex. Some parents, especially those whose families have a history of fatal or severely debilitating sex-linked diseases, are conceiving children through in vitro fertilization. The resulting embryos are screened for sex and disease status, and only healthy embryos of the desired sex are implanted. Nothing whatsoever is "changed" about the embryo(s) that are finally implanted.
This should be outlawed! If parents are too worried about having children with disorders then they shouldn't have kids at all. WE ARE NOT GOD!!! We should not have the choice to alter what God wants to give us! If you can not love your child for who they are you should NOT be allowed to have children!!! It makes me sick to just think that parents could do that! That is all I really have to say...
I agree with whoever says that we dont need to be able to choose our kids sex.
OPTIONS are GOOD. Especially if they can possibly save a life. Would I do this personally...NO! It would be really awkward telling your kid "You were actually supposed to be a boy."
A question: Would this effect the traditional likes/dislikes of a boy/girl? (and I'm trying not to be sexist here, yet people will take it that way)
I'm afraid I don't understand your question. But I'd like to answer it for you. Can you rephrase?
If you're asking whether or not screening embryos for a desired sex has any effect on the personality of the eventual child, I would say the answer is no, biologically speaking, anyway. No one is altering the genetic makeup of these children, or screening them for anything other than sex or disease markers. But birth order does seem to have an effect on personality (probably because of parenting and family environment). Try this post for more on that.
If you're asking about how parental choice affects gender balance (the number of baby girls vs baby boys born in a population each year), there are a few good posts about that already in this thread. Try here first.
first, children are not property and secondly if people believe parents should be able do what they want with their children, then why do we have laws against child abuse? obviously the parents wanted to abuse their kids, otherwise they wouldn't have done that. but we do not allow this and therefore we should not allow parents to change the makeup of their children. plus how do we know that the child, for example, will want blue eyes and blonde hair?
I think that most folks would agree with you that children are not "property." But if you read the original question, and the linked story, you'll see that the question was about using preimplantation genetic diagnosis to pick the sex of a child, usually because of a family history of a fatal or severely debilitating sex-linked genetic disease.
No one is "changing the genetic makeup of children." Instead, embryos conceived through in vitro fertilization are screened, and only embryos of the desired sex are implanted.
And while I know that people sometimes choose sperm or egg donors on the basis of height, eye and hair color, perceived intelligence, or various talents, I don't know of anyone who's currently screening EMBRYOS for those traits. It's not impossible, sometime down the line, but I don't think it's currently happening.
If you read my earlier posts, you'll see that I totally agree with your last point: getting to make a choice about your future child doesn't guarantee that the child you imagine is the child you get!
There is nothing wrong with wanting children!
I think that children are a gift from God and you shold be pleased with any gift you get whether it is a girl or boy. If we continue to allow gender selection, serious, dangerous problems could occur in our society. Gender selection is a powerful tool that science does not yet fully understand how to use. If we do not draw the line between wants and needs early, there will be no stopping wealthy parents in the future who want to choose all of the characteristics of their babies, and this creates problems in the human race and promotes intolerance towards others.
Just think of what doors this is opening! Screening for diseases is possible with the right path and we would be able to test people and embryos for the genes liked to obesity, cardiovascular diseases, x-linked mental retardation and other genetic disorders!
Plus think of it this way; in china little baby girls are thrown away or killed for their gender! We could prevent the deaths of many innocent girls by changing the sex of the embryo instead of having people hit and miss with a normal pregnancy!
What if one day there is an out of balance system where the population is 30% girls and 70% guys? Through genetic engineering that can be fixed by slowly introducing more girls into the population.
Is it that hard to give it a try?
If you have a big problem with it, or you want to support genetic engineering by giving me your thought on this question(Should parents be able to select the sex of their children using genetic testing?)
Email me @ fukue_jima@hotmail.com
I don't believe in gene manipulation but just to play the devils advocate:
Ok, first of all, the argument that "we are not god" is completely invalid. First of what, which god? Second of all, how do you know that god didn't want us to pursue gene manipulation? A century ago, people believed eating meat on a friday was a sin. In leviticus, the bible says that we shouldn't grow some crops next to other crops. Do we still follow these rules? Hell no.
As for the people that say equilibrium may be change, I think people are smart enough to realize that once the ratio of men/women have reached an unsustainable amount, the most logical choice is to have more females. The primary thing that most parents want is to see their children happy. A close relationship/marriage is an important part of a person's happiness, so parents most likely want to see their children married. If there is an huge disparity in proportion, parents will choose the fewer sex in order to guarantee marriage (at least to some degree).
As for the slippery slope argument, choosing sex can actually relieve some diseases. We are not talking about changing other traits, which is genetically much more difficult than manipulation of entire chromosomes, which does confer sex.
I have a question to pose for the people that say no to sex manipulation:
(This is a true story a couple of years ago) A deaf couple who was unable to have children went to many sperm centers to find a deaf donor, which meant a great possibility that their children might be deaf. They said that they want their children to be deaf because it will bring them closer and they can share in the active deaf community. Should they be allowed to do this?
If you think that they are "harming" the child, then think again. We allow African-American parents to have African-American kids, no? It is commonly accepted that being black in America is disadvantagous in many circumstances. So if we allow disadvantaged black kids to be born, shouldn't we allow these deaf parents to make their child deaf? Now lets say that instead of going to the sperm center, they went to go see about gene manipulation. They want to use their own sperm/egg but to manipluation a gene so that their child will be deaf. Whats the difference?
i don't think that they should be able it may not be any of our business but.......still thats not something you shold mess with to tell you the truth you are messin with mother nature!!! and thats not cool so NO i don't think that thay should be able to choose their childs sex!!!!!!!
....what if ur kid is going to be retarted i dont want a retarted kid...!!! u dig ME!!!
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists now recommends that every pregnant woman (instead of only women over 35) be offered a test for Down syndrome.
But parents of children with Down syndrome are worried: if everyone gets tested, and abortion rates for women with positive results stay the same (about 90% right now), the number of kids with Down syndrome born in the US will drop sharply. And that means there will be far fewer services and a much smaller community available to the kids that are born.
It's an interesting question: Where do we draw the line between preventing disability and accepting human diversity?
Some 5500 children with Down syndrome are born in the US each year. They suffer from mild to moderate mental retardation, have a high risk for heart defects and a whole suite of other medical problems, and have an average life expectancy of 49. Some are capable of living independently; others aren't.
For me, that answers the question. 50 years of life, with the capacity to feel pleasure and pain, make friends, learn, grow, work, etc, means that, for me, a diagnosis of Down syndrome is not a reason to abort. (On the other hand, I have no right to make that decision for someone else, either.)
But that doesn't mean that, if I had the chance to choose BEFORE an embryo was implanted, I wouldn't choose differently. And that's the ethical question that the option of preimplantation genetic diagnosis forces us to wrestle with.
if you decide the sex of the kid your SEXEST!!!
I think that choosing a baby's sex is against the laws of nature; it's insane and against what it means to be human.
I got that from Doctor Who. ^^
parents shouldn't want to change the sex of there child
Hmmm im doing an assignment on so called 'designer babies'. Im torn... On one hand genetically modifiying embryos (can include choosing sex) can prevent heriditary diseases like eye cancer etc... On the other hand families are now creating babies to be donors to their fatally sick sibling. But back on the subject choosing the sex of a child! It is ok! This proceedure is dangerously common in countaries such as Chine and India where males are favoured because they are the bread winners! I agree with it to an extent where we could be curing the future child from sex-linked diseases but i think just choosing the sex of your child 'cause i want a girl' is morally wrong as it isnt the way God intented to be. (The proceedure is also very costly and could create a larger division between the rich and the poor.
Choosing the sex of your child is not right. Think about this, if everybody in China could choose the sex of their child, nobody would chosse to have girls, and if this were to happen, eventually there would be no females left in the race and then it would completely die out. There would be no more chinese left.
I think most people in the US largely agree with you: the idea of selecting embryos solely on the basis of sex seems wrong. Some people, however, see nothing wrong with "balancing" their families (i.e. deliberately choosing to have a girl if you already have a boy, or vice versa). And the vast majority of people in the US who are choosing embryos of a particular sex are doing it because they're trying to prevent a serious, sex-linked health problem.
Remember, too, that using preimplantation genetic diagnosis with in vitro fertilization is not cheap. And insurance doesn't cover it most of the time.
i think that choosing the sex of your child is wrong god is suppose to decide that!
i think people have different morals and everyone should respect it, so therefore if people want to choose they can. whats the point of knowning all theses facts and not being able to do it. If cloning was to be caried out, more research would go into it and we would know more about the human body...
gene selecting is the most messed up stuff you can do. not only it can go wrong, it might mess up the dna and might create birth defects/
Parents in the scenario described above (in the original question and post) are not altering an embryo's DNA in any way. They are not changing any genes. The selection that's happening is that certain embryos, conceived through in vitro fertilization, are being picked for implantation. And some families are picking only embryos of a particular sex. Often this is because that family has a history of a severe or fatal sex-linked disease. But sometimes it's just because the parents want to "balance" their family.
Basically, strongly think that they should be allowed if they like, if God wanted us to make our own choices, this must be one of his tests.
First of all i agree the that people are not property...the parents that are choosing the sex of thier child are not saying that it is their propertity. Second of all a parent would accept the child eighter way boy or girl even if they choose the sex of their child.... its not to say they wouldnt love that child if it happend to come out a boy and they wanted a girl. For years people have been wanting a certian sex in their child hopeing it's a boy or hopeing it's a girl so are you to say those people sin? If the parent wanted a girl and got a boy they'd loved the child no matter what and they accepted the child obiously. So choosing the sex of your child isn't going to make the parent not accept or accept the child any more or any less. Third, there are certain health benifits to being a female and there are benifits to also being a male.. if breast cancer ran in the family of a parent you might want to have a boy in order to try and prevent ..same goes for other health issues or things that are more dominant in the opposite sex. Fourth, it wouldn't make the population grow on a certain sexes side because every parent wants differnt things one parent might want a girl where as another may want a boy. Saying that these people who choose the sex of thier child are siners and going against God is wrong...he obiously is giving us the choice so if its his test its his test He would still love you no matter what.
i think it is wrong to choose the sex of your baby. isnt it supposed to be a glorious occation? just the excitment of not knowing which it will be is good enough but knowing u will love your child either way is better. children are a gift and a treasure not a toy!
do wot ya want
hyaa!! i fink tht yoo shud nt be able 2 choose the sex of yah babiee a mean yoo may want a lil girl or a lil boii bt still yoo wait and see wt it is whn the the natralness cums n if yah dnt agree wiv meh thn a dnt fink yah shud evn be avin kids in the first place coz yah myt nt be happii wiv the sex ov yah babiee so wts the point!!! lurvee yahz xxmwahxx
first of all...if u gonna give ur baby up jus cuz itz not the rite sex den u shouldnt b havin babies in the first place cuz a mother/father will luv their baby no matter wut...
true true. it should just come naturally.but then again what if say that person already has six girls and now she wants a boy. so do you think she should go in and make sure that it is going to be a boy or should she cross her fingers and hope for a boy. so i think that it kind of depends on the situation.
Personally I would say that your hypothetical person has had enough kids. I just think parents get wrapped up to much in thinking of kids as some sort of toy instead of a person. Don't get your heart set on a particular gender for your child and everyone will be allot happier.
i think people sould be able 2 chose the sex of their child if they wont 2
i dont believe in god but i believe its wrong to muck around with this sort of thing. people should be grateful to have kids no matter what the sex. Its only stupid sexist people that want to choose the gender of their children. people who agree are sexist and supporting something which will end up becoming a social event weighing up the pro's and con's of having a boy or girl. it will create sexual inbalance and a higher demand for one sex which will not necessarily be the sex o choice for parents!!!!
Wow. Strong feelings. And lots of folks agree with you. I suppose I do, to a large extent.
But I want to point out that (as stated in the post that kicked off this poll) many people who are opting for pre-implantation genetic diagnosis are doing it because they have a history of a fatal or severely debilitating sex-linked genetic illness in their families. These are couples who want to have biological children, but don't want to perpetuate such a disease.
They aren't "stupid sexist" people. They are people grappling with hard medical and life choices, and moving forward in one of only two possible ways (do things naturally and hope for the best, or use science to help achieve the best possible outcome).
Most clinics that offer pre-implantation genetic diagnosis do not perform the procedure for the purposes of "family balancing."
And this is just a knee-jerk response to all who say, "You should be grateful for any child": Of course. It goes without saying that people who want to be parents count children--any children--as blessings. But aren't they allowed to want healthy children, too? There are no guarantees in this life (besides death and taxes, of course), and even pre-implantation genetic diagnosis doesn't provide a warranty for a healthy child. But it greatly increases the odds for people holding a bad genetic "hand." And if I were in that situation, I'd consider the option just as surely as I'd consider adoption.
i dont think that is right.If you want dont like boys or girl.If you want a girl for sure.Why not goaddopt a kid with no parents
the sex of a child should remain anonymous to the parents until born or a ultrasound is done.I think in ultering or preventing nature from taking its course we might be playing God or harming the natural growth of the child. But God gives free will so persons who chose the sex of their child should be prepared to accept the consequences of their actions.
EVERY ACTION HAS A REACTION SO BE CAREFUL!
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