Designer Babies & Gender Choice
Should we be able to choose the sex of our children?
What are the two sides of the coin and which is most likely to fall with its face up?
Is there a possibility of a populace imbalance? Is it likely that couples (individuals) will choose one sex over the other? How many designer babies will need to be born before they have any impact on the gender balance?
Will prospective parents in countries like China, where only one child per couple is allowed, be more likely to choose a boy over a girl? Girls, as we know, are not favoured in Chinese society, and the law controlling births have led to girls being "done away with" at birth to make way for a boy. Will designer babies at least ensure that girl babies will no longer need to suffer drowning and other unpleasant deaths?
Is it better that we're able to choose the gender of our children and bestow love on them rather than put up with a child we didn't want? Is this just another step onwards from abortion? Give birth but only to those children we truly desire?
Me? I'm definitely against it. Leave well alone. We've messed around with nature far too much as it is. Boys will be boys and girls will be girls and that's how it's supposed to be.
Yes, some children will suffer for being the wrong sex and that's a terrible thing, but designer babies isn't the answer. Education is what's needed. An understanding that for the world to function, both sexes are needed. After all, if that wasn't the case, wouldn't we all be born hermaphrodite?
Ok, so designer babies could perhaps stop us from becoming a frail and sickly species that's unable to survive the diseases we're surrounded by, but that's another argument entirely.
Related Link: What Are Designer Babies?
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Designer Babies
2 Comments:
OK, if I could have designed my kids would I have made them any different. The only thing I might have done is toughen them up a bit, but then maybe they wouldn't be as nice as they are.
But in general I'm with you on this one Sharon. I think I would leave it to the parents to decide about taking out dodgy genes if they know they carry them. I know all life is precious and one life is as valid as another, but some lives can be hell of a hard if you have some real debilitating illness or whatever.
By
tom909, at 30/6/06 09:09
Tom. My son has profound learning difficulties (what we would have once called mentally retarded) and I was told that my second child, a perfectly healthy girl, stood a huge chance of having the same problem. The reason doctors told me this is because her head was too small (they measured it on the scan). I was offered an abortion but refused. I'm not sure how I would have coped if she had have been like Paul but I would have, somehow or another. Paul's once of the happiest, kindest people I've ever had the honour to have known. There's absolutely no malice in him... he cares about everybody and everything around him and ... well, he's pretty unique. Sure, he's had to put up with a lot in his life. Lord knows how many operations, and how much pain, but still he's happy. Still he loves life. Should he have been removed? No, I don't think so. There are plenty of so-called normal people who are doing far more damage than Paul and those like him will ever do.
Being able to choose is scary. But on the other side I can see that some parents would have abandoned a child like Paul. Where would that have left him?
Yes, I agree with you. Give the parents the choice but for God's sake don't make anybody believe that one kind of person is better than another. That's when the trouble will really start!
By
Anonymous, at 30/6/06 14:13
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