Sex Selection and Pre-selection are Unethical

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Sex Selection and Pre-selection are Unethical and Unwise

It wasn't until 1975 that scientist Ronald J. Ericsson, Ph.D. began studies that eventually led to what we refer to today as sex selection and/ or pre- selection. He began his determination by studying whether or not enriched sperm would aid in the offspring of a desired gender. This process was first established in the 1970s in which scientists stained X and Y sperm in order to identify them. Thorough studies have been accumulated during the last three decades due to an increase in the perceived need for a "balanced family" and "planned pregnancy" in regards to the "chosen baby." Sex selection and/or pre-selection, despite one's preference of gender, is a scientifically unethical and unnecessary technique due to its accustomed procedures and questionable results.

Sex selection can take place by genetically testing, or by taking ultrasound images of the developing fetus, resulting in abortion due to an undesired gender. The practice of sex selection can also take place after the birth of the child, "[.] when one or both parents kill their baby" (Dixon), also through the process known as partial birth abortion. If a couple does not take into consideration reasonable procedures prior to conception, the undesired baby is typically aborted. When a couple realizes, proceeding conception, that the child that they would be having is a girl, their only alternative is abortion if the gender is undesired. A woman can choose to have a deliberate induction of a miscarriage in which the fetus and placenta are vacuumed out of the uterus, or a partial birth abortion in which an abortionist creates a hole inside the baby's skull, that remains inside the birth canal, and drains...

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...John I. "Sex Selection: Choice and Responsibility in Human Reproduction."

The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.22 January 2003. .

Gosden, Roger. "Designing Babies: The Brave New World of Reproductive Technology." W.H. Freeman and Co., New York, 1999. 116.

Hung, J, and Peng, X. "Chinese Traditional Medicine and Abnormal Sex Ratio at Birth in

China." Journal of Biosocial Science. 31 Oct 1999: 487-503.

"Sex Selection." Ethics in Obstetrics and Gynecology. November 1996.

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"Sex Selection and Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis." Fertility and Sterility: TheEthics Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Technology. 72. 4.(1999).

United Nations. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. New York. 10 December 1948. Article 2.

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