Although I understand the perils of technology of this nature, I cant say that it will pose a problem in the big picture. Not if it stays an optional, expensive, elitist procedure.

You mentioned that its not allowed in some other countries and its an expensive process. This alone would keep the practice in check. The US only represents a small fraction of the worlds population. And the amount of people who actually have this available to them im sure is hardly measurable against the worlds population. I.e. the impact could hardly be measured.

Now, if this technology became legal and available to the entire world, then things would become interesting to say the least. Natural selection and evolution has made human reproduction the way it is for a reason and I agree that the ability to choose a gender would alter that in ways we could never predict.

In the example you stated I dont see any issues. After all, they didnt resort to this technique until they already had three girls. As far as having twins is concerned, thats a by product to fertility help, not gender selection.

This is definatly something that needs to be watched very closely.

Originally posted by jeeze louise
destroys some embryos just because they are the "wrong" sex, and promotes gender discrimination.

its an artificial insemination technique in which the parents are given multiple embryos to choose from. If they choose a boy over a girl, or vice versa, well, so be it. Most artificial insemination techniques and in vitro fertilization methods require that multiple eggs be harvested and multiple otherwise viable embryos be created and selected from.


But if you think sex selection is disturbing, think about selecting for brith defects, like, deafness. Surveys and studies have shown that some deaf parents would prefer to have a deaf child, many are willing to do genetic screening to make sure that they are having one, and some have even said that if they hah a hearing child that they'd have an abortion until they conceived a deaf one.

Conversely, many hearing parents would have abortions to prevent the birth of a deaf child, or a mentally handicapped child, or a deformed child.

With more genetic testing, people will be able to choose from a suite of features.

In some countries, liek India I beleive, the elimination of female children in favour of male children is starting to lead to a shift in the sexual demographics, with more men than women. Normally there are slightly more women than men.

[edit on 14-12-2004 by Nygdan]

I think things like this have a trickle down effect. What starts out as a good idea gets mutated and spreads, first you pick the sex of the child, then it turns to more mundane choices, might be that you want a blond little boy, or a little extra height, or the skinny gene. Anyway my point is things always get carried away, then mutations occur. Mother nature had a plan, and its proven to be a good one, once we start playing around with things we don't fully understand problems start popping out, I heard of something called the chaos therory, I am sure it can explain it far better that I can.