Dena Davis in the 5th chapter of “Genetic Dilemmas: Reproductive Technology, Parental Choices, and Children’s Futures” explores the global attitudes, policies, and morality towards determination of sex. She begins with presenting empirical evidence of some preferences held in countries such as India or China where there is a clear desire for male children. This inclination is so deeply held that mothers can be socially and physically harmed when, by pure biological chance, they fail to produce a male child. Davis and others allow sex selection in these cases, purely in the interest of harm reduction of mothers and their daughters born into such a situation. This example is contrasted with so-called “western” societies, where the preference …show more content…
This is meant to alleviate logistical concerns that sex selection will lead to disastrous gender skewing. However, Davis takes this evidence and evaluates it with a moralistic concern about the motivations and expectations that arise from the ideal 50/50, “family-balancing” scenario that an aforementioned large percentage of Americans say they would employ given the option. It seems to Davis that this desire for a balanced family is sexist to its core, in that it completely ignores all potential traits that two children may exhibit in favor of equally distributing sex at birth between them. This is to say that the act of family balancing only seems to be accepted on the basis of gender, not other attributes or hobbies that a child may have. Parents wouldn’t be so keen to prohibit a younger child from pursuing chess club as an extracurricular just because their eldest had already been a member in grade school, even though this would cause an imbalance in the perceived qualities of their …show more content…
Wong depicts her personal philosophy as a woman who, as she nears the time of planning her own family, she must consider all of the possibilities if she accepts genetic testing. She specifically focuses on the repercussions of a potential Trisomy-21 diagnosis for her child, and what it would mean philosophically to abort that fetus and how it would be similar for a parent to select against having a daughter. She recognizes a very important connotation here, something that was implicit in Davis’s argument against sex selection; there is a clear distinction between the genetics of being female and how being female is treated in society. Based on her experiences with a brother who has Down’s, she firmly establishes that there is a distinction between having three copies of the 21st human chromosome and the treatment and expectations of Down’s Syndrome within modern society. Wong clearly shows that there exist expectations of both “diagnoses” that severely constrain the options of those who receive them; Gender expectations arise from centuries of role solidification while the expectations of Down’s Syndrome come from, as Wong describes, a lack of experience with Down’s
In other words, the existence of a social bias does not automatically hinder every choice pertaining to every single one of parties involved in the social bias1. Savulescu adds to that by claiming that allowing sex selection implies that one sex is superior to the other is in fact sexist. This is because by simplying choosing one thing over the other (in this case, sex) reflects preference, while by claiming the choice is discriminatory only reflects prior judgement brought into the decision. This therefore supports premise 2 because it separates sex selection’s benefit to society- which is the added benefit of being able to have a choice rather than chance concerning the sex of a new child, from the biases concerned with sex in society today. Savulescu adds that artificially disturbed sex ratios as seen in Asia have not been all that bad and some good has come from it such as “increase in influence from the rarer sex, reduced population growth, and interbreeding of different populations.”1.
In “The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?” Deborah Blum states that “gender roles of our culture reflect an underlying biology” (Blum 679). Maasik and Solomon argue that gender codes and behavior “are not the result of some sort of natural or biological destiny, but are instead politically motivated cultural constructions,” (620) raising the question whether gender behavior begins in culture or genetics. Although one may argue that gender roles begin in either nature or nurture, many believe that both culture and biology have an influence on the behavior.
Young children are typically raised around specific sex-types objects and activities. This includes the toys that that are given, activities that they are encouraged to participate in, and the gender-based roles that they are subjected to from a young age. Parents are more likely to introduce their daughters into the world of femininity through an abundance of pink colored clothes and objects, Barbie dolls, and domestic chores such as cooking and doing laundry (Witt par. 9). Contrarily, boys are typically exposed to the male world through action figures, sports, the color blue, and maintenance-based chores such as mowing the lawn and repairing various things around the house (Witt par. 9). As a result, young children begin to link different occupations with a certain gender thus narrowing their decisions relating to their career goals in the future. This separation of options also creates a suppresses the child from doing something that is viewed as ‘different’ from what they were exposed to. Gender socialization stemming from early childhood shapes the child and progressively shoves them into a small box of opportunities and choices relating to how they should live their
Amniocentesis and ultrasound techniques are the most common ways for couples to determine the sex of the child before it is born. In the US, such tests are routine and not usually alarming, but in nations such as India and China those tests, and others, have become an issue of debate since the results could mean life or death. Until the 1980’s, people in poor countries could do little about their preference for sons before birth, ...
In a little more than a decade China will be losing its title as the world’s most populous country. More importantly China’s demographic have been changing due to unpredictable population changes. The need for a male heir and the One Child Policy has caused china’s gender ratio to be imbalanced. Reason being men are usually the main income-earners because they are more employable and earn higher wages for the same work. Since male babies have a greater income potential, they are less likely to be killed. The average male to female sex ratio was 118:100 in 2010. In rural areas if their first-born is a daughter or suffers from a physical or mental illness families can apply to try again. Families that apply to try again are subject to birth spacing or waiting 3 or 4 years to try again. Additional children will result in large fines up to ten times the average income. Families violating the policy are required to pay monetary penalties and may also lose their employm...
...ce and male to female ratio. G.I Serour states: “It is argued that gender selection for nonmedical reasons will reinforce this male preference pattern, lead to a serious distortion of the sex ratio, identify gender as a reason to value one person over another, or contribute to society's gender stereotyping.” (Transcultural Issues In Gender Selection). In conclusion many of the signs point to the idea and practice of gender selection being unethical and an immoral concept. Selecting the gender of your child for nonmedical reasons before it naturally happens is unethical and also unsafe. Introducing destructive processes and tools into the body is bad enough on its own but using them while a baby is developing is absolutely absurd. Babies should have the opportunity to naturally develop into what they were meant to be, not what their parents would prefer them to be.
Sex selection is when one uses medical techniques to conceive the preferred gender. This practice brings up questions about sex discrimination, stereotypes, reproductive autonomy, and ethics of choosing children with certain traits. In the U.S, many organizations are against sex selection but have yet taken a position. Sex selection is connected with the idea of a certain gender being superior. People think of gender as categories, either boy or girl, not as a fluid. Some say allowing sex selection is another way to allow abortions; while others say it is better to choose the gender then kill the child all together. Clinics allow sex selection for the first or only child. More common is using sex selection for family balancing. In America, family balancing is used so parents can have a balanced amount of gender. In China, family balancing is used to fix the dominance of males from using sex selection for males in an overloaded
Genetic Engineering is harmful because it has produced Gendercide in countries such as China and India. Genetic engineering allows sex selection to become easier. The imbalance between genders continues to rise. Clayton Farris states, “In China the imbalance between sexes was 108 boys to 100 girls in the late 1980s, for the generation of of the early 2000s it was 124 to 100. In some chinese provinces is an unprecedented 130 to 100”(Farris 63).The imbalance between sexes is “unprecedented”. Parents constantly use genetics to get the gender they value. Many parents choose boys in China which leads to the outrageous number of “130 to 100”. Chinese parents value men more than women in their culture. Sex selection gives them the opportunity to get what they want. Their desire sex leads them into Gendercide. Genetic
A typical afternoon consists of my dad laying on the couch from a long day at work, and my mom in the kitchen, preparing dinner. Although we live in an era that has predominantly nullified sex-specific social norms, a difference in gender roles still exists within households. What exactly are gender roles? They are fixed, gender specific expectations, established, in this case, among families. These roles of what should socially be considered masculine and feminine have existed throughout many centuries. A particular issue regarding gender roles is, do gender roles in households ultimately affect both the physical and mental development of a child? With thorough research and observations conducted by, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Janis E. Jacobs,
The practice of female infanticide shows how desirable having a male child is that parents would take the lives of a female baby. The dowry system in India is the main cause of female infanticide in India. Gender inequalities in the rural part of northern India exhibit female infanticide occurs here the most despite laws to abolish these acts. Men hold a higher value in this society because a system they adapted many years ago. Men are seen as an asset or of value because at one point his future wife and her family will “pay” for him. Daughters are opposite and viewed as a burden to the family because she will have to marry one day and that will cost her parents. So women are not viewed equally here even as infants, they don’t even stand a chance. Officials have tried to make laws to assist in reducing female infanticide but people have continued to follow traditions of the dowry systems putting the population at risk as well
Throughout history, the roles of men and women in the home suggested that the husband would provide for his family, usually in a professional field, and be the head of his household, while the submissive wife remained at home. This wife’s only jobs included childcare, housekeeping, and placing dinner on the table in front of her family. The roles women and men played in earlier generations exemplify the way society limited men and women by placing them into gender specific molds; biology has never claimed that men were the sole survivors of American families, and that women were the only ones capable of making a pot roast. This depiction of the typical family has evolved. For example, in her observation of American families, author Judy Root Aulette noted that more families practice Egalitarian ideologies and are in favor of gender equality. “Women are more likely to participate in the workforce, while men are more likely to share in housework and childcare (apa…).” Today’s American families have broken the Ward and June Cleaver mold, and continue to become stronger and more sufficient. Single parent families currently become increasingly popular in America, with single men and women taking on the roles of both mother and father. This bend in the gender rules would have, previously, been unheard of, but in the evolution of gender in the family, it’s now socially acceptable, and very common.
Determining whether to divulge the gender of a child should be a personal choice. Society should not dictate whether one chooses to disclose the sex of their child. At conception, the gender is determined by chromosome characteristics and it will be the male (male semen) that dictates whether the baby will be a boy or girl. Nowhere in any literature that has been read or published that it states that “society” is the determining factor whether a girl or boy will be conceived. Society suggests that knowing the gender is routine, but what may be considered routine for some is not necessarily customary for all. If one chooses to stray away from what is considered to be “normal” it poses or present an issue. Individuals are instantaneously met with opposition or back lash due to nondisclosure of the sex of their child whether it is unborn or born. A typical argument would be as to what color clothing to bring for the unborn or born child, should one bring pink or blu...
Over the decades, a significant mark of the evolution of gender is the increasing social phenomenon in how society conceptualizes gender. Gender is a system of social practices for characterizing people as two different categories, femininity and masculinity and arranging social relations of inequality on the basis of that difference (Ridgeway & Correll 2004). Gender-neutral parenting (GNP) refers to raising children outside of the traditional stereotypes of girls and boys. It involves allowing children to explore their innate personalities and abilities rather than confining them into rigid gender roles that society has shaped. It can be argued that it is through socialization children discover how to operate in gendered structures, learn
According to Kate Bornstein and their work Gender Outlaw, “the first question we usually ask new parents is: Is it a boy or a girl?” (46). This question creates a sense of a rigid dichotomy, by which individuals must outwardly conform to either being male or female. Individuals who do not prescribe to this binary concept of gender identity find themselves ostracized from much of society – ignored, ridiculed, and laughed at as an insignificant minority. For this group of people, “either/or is used as a control mechanism,” creating a normative group by which power can be derived from (102). According to Bornstein, the concept of the gender binary being the “natural state of affairs” is one of the most dangerous thoughts proliferated about gender within modern society (105). For individuals who do not conform to this socially created structure, they are seen as opposing the natural order of things, and subsequently, their power is stripped by society, and they are deemed as unnatural and inhuman. These oppressive labels create intense feelings of gender dissonance, and the pressure to conform can often overwhelm the individual, directly resulting in often horrific
Female foeticide has become a disgraceful and shocking reality of this nation. For centuries, families across many parts of India have look upon the male child as the superlative of the two sexes. A male child is seen as a blessing in the Indian society and since years people have made lavish offerings and numerous prayers in hopes for getting a son. These beliefs continue to remain even though times have changed and now much of the inequality is reducing. The Indian society recognizes a insightful faith in every individual’s right to life and dignity but this rights are dishonored when it comes to women and children in this society. A difference in a society’s ideal values and its reality is defined as a social