So I have a question for all those that would care to answer. Its for a paper that I have to do for my A&P class. Feel free to leave a comment
question: You have decided that you want to have a baby(make a baby...). You find out that technology that will allow you to choose the gender of that baby is available to you. It is not like invitro where multiple embryos are made and some are possibly discarded. The XX and XY gametes are separable so that only XX or XY gametes will meet the egg. why, why not, and if so which gender would you choose? and if so would u do it for following kids and which would you choose if u did it for the siblings?
please take the matter seriously. I'd like to get an accurate representation of the plethora of views on the subject.
please... no condemning others for their views. discussion is encouraged. keep it friendly
What if you already had a couple kids and they were both female? Would you then wish to manually have a boy?
No. To me it's a terrible inditement of society if the gender of our children is seen as nothing more than a product to be bought and sold for thousands. Yet another example of how we know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Sorry for the DP, but I'd also like to add that as an atheist I think it's still a tenable position. God or no this is crossing the line of acceptability.
For me the problem is that it's essentially a form of eugenics, which I don't want to delve too deeply into in a thread this specific, but suffice to say, if you think it's acceptable to choose something as fundamental as the sex of your child, then you also must believe it's ok to engineer their other physical features.
No, I wouldn't select gender. Of course I'd like having both a girl and a boy, but for only one child I have no preferences up to now. Both would be great.
Why would anyone want to choose the gender of their child? Unless there was some seriously messed up male to female ratio that required immediate correction then the point of it seems to merely boil down to "We'd prefer to have a [select gender]" and that seems to suggest you wouldn't love the child as much if it wasn't the gender you wanted. That begs the question: Should those people really be allowed to have children in the first place?
Come to think of it, the only time I think messing around with nature on this sort of thing is acceptable (besides if the couple can't naturally have a child by... normal methods), is if you're trying to eliminate the possibility of the child being born with a hereditary disease that runs in your family.
Exactly - I can see no situation, excluding trying to prevent/remove genetic diseases, that warrants messing with the natural cause of pregnancy. Choosing the gender of your child is comparable in some ways to the idea of a 'Designer Baby'
Why would anyone want to choose the gender of their child? Unless there was some seriously messed up male to female ratio that required immediate correction then the point of it seems to merely boil down to "We'd prefer to have a [select gender]" and that seems to suggest you wouldn't love the child as much if it wasn't the gender you wanted. That begs the question: Should those people really be allowed to have children in the first place?
i'm not really singling out this statement... moreso just using it as a jumping board.
some asian countries discard their babies if they aren't of the gender the parents wanted. not that everyone in those countries participates... its just that rumor has it(i've never confirmed it to say "I KNOW" there are alot more female dumpster babies than there are male.
the question was posed... why would anyone want to choose the gender? I understand your question and almost mirror your thoughts on it, but the thing is that people do want to and they will also love their children less if its not of the desired gender...
i personally think that choosing also objecifies the child and in my mind makes it somewhat more of a thing you bought rather than a human... i know its still human... please try and see my frame of mind even if you don't agree with it.
I'm well aware of what happened (and still does in some areas) in some Asian countries. Let's take China and it's one child policy. Males were more valued to the Chinese than females because they were considered stronger, smarter and better able to carry forward the family legacy. This led to a helluva lot of female babies being dumped in horrible, unsanitary rooms where they were left to die in a pile of their own excrement or merely discarded on the street like a piece of rubbish. I see that as one of China's many failings - which is coming back to bite them now that there is a ratio of 6 males to 1 female in some areas, not particularly good in a country that gives such high value to marriage (many unmarried men get looked down upon by their peers).
i personally think that choosing also objecifies the child and in my mind makes it somewhat more of a thing you bought rather than a human... i know its still human... please try and see my frame of mind even if you don't agree with it.
I agree on that, and I think what you said here:
but the thing is that people do want to and they will also love their children less if its not of the desired gender...
is a problem that may have always been there, but that will increase with the new technology getting more affordable. I think even the possibility of having the child's gender changed is more of a curse.
i don't think this technology would be used to change an already existing embryo's gender... only make sure of what that gender will be in the first place
Yeah I would select a boy if i could, just because i would have been one so i think it would be easier to raise someone whos the same gender, as they would have some of the same traits as me, and i can relate more, therefore be a better dad
I would say a boy and after like 6 years, a girl. Older brother (I mean a lot older brother) and younger sister don't fight a lot. Peace for the parents :3
I think changing the child's gender is silly you've all stated my reasons, so no sense in repetition. As for a gender preference, boys are easier to understand being a guy myself; but a girl would also be nice.Some people don't even appreciate the fact that the have a child, while other people are desperate so why be picky? What the scientists of this field should work on is producing genetically healthy people both mentally and physically. But there's potentially bad outcomes there as well :/
