Gender Selection of Babies

One of the first pieces of information that parents receive about a newborn baby is its gender. The widespread use of ultrasound technology during pregnancy even allows many parents to find out whether their baby is male or female before it is born. In recent years, technology has enabled parents to go one step further. They can now, with a good chance of success, take steps to select the gender of their children.

Scientific sex-selection techniques were first developed in the 1970s, and have since become more sophisticated. Some involve scientists separating male- and female-producing sperm, while another method relies on the creation of an embryo of the desired gender. While the techniques are still somewhat expensive, they have lately attained a higher profile and have been increasing in popularity. At the same time, critics of the practice have become vocal as well. Sex selection is sometimes used so that a child will be less likely to get an inherited disease more prevalent in a particular gender, but its more controversial use involves cases in which the selection is based on nonmedical parental wishes for a boy or a girl.

While gender selection is legal in the U.S., it has generated some controversy among the medical advisory groups that tackle questions of bioethics. For instance, although the sperm-separation method is widely endorsed for families that have one or more children of a particular gender and want one of the other, the embryo-implanting method is not universally endorsed for nonmedical purposes. The issue is more controversial in Britain, where nonmedical sex selection has been banned.

Even more controversial is the use, in some Asian countries such as China and India, of a more improvised form of sex selection. In those countries, the cultural preference for boys is strong, and parents often determine the gender of their children through ultrasound and then abort the fetus if it is a girl. Although the governments of China and India have outlawed the practice, it has already affected the ratio of men to women, a situation that is blamed for the kidnapping and trafficking of women who are later sold as brides to men who cannot find wives. Although somewhat distinct from the issue of gender selection in the U.S. and Britain, the Asian gender selection dilemma influences that debate as well.

Critics of gender selection tend to approve of its use for the prevention of disease but oppose its nonmedical application. They argue that it allows parents to customize their children and could lead to cases in which parents select other characteristics, such as intelligence and appearance. They add that sex selection can encourage gender discrimination and even lead to a gender imbalance of the type seen in India and China.

Supporters of gender selection counter that it should be the choice of parents themselves, and is a valuable option for couples who would otherwise simply keep having children until they got one of the desired gender. They dispute the assertion that sex selection will lead to gender discrimination and imbalance, noting that U.S. couples have not shown a strong preference for either boys or girls. And they say that if a particular society is biased against one gender, that is not the fault of sex selection technology but of ingrained attitudes that have to be corrected.

Sources
Bailey, Ronald. "Sex Selection." Reason, October 3, 2001, www.reason.com.

"Church Criticizes Baby Sex Selection Report." Guardian, March 24, 2005, www.guardian.co.uk.

Bauculinao, Eric. "China Grapples with Legacy of Its 'Missing Girls.' " MSNBC.com, September 14, 2004, www.msnbc.msn.com.