Gender Selection
In the gender selection article, a fertility clinic is offering the chance to pick the gender of your baby. People from countries where gender selection is illegal, come to the United States in order to hve the chance to have a boy. Using PGD, a test that is used to detect gentic abnormalities, Steinburg can select a babys gender with 99.9 percent accuracy. Some people think gender selection is unethical because gender is not a disease. Some even say that gender selection is sexism and that it is just making designer babies. They are taking a natural process and are turning it into a design your own baby buisness. I think that it should be left natural because that is how it has always been. Also as a result, one gender
can end up over powering the other. Implications of Embryo Screening In this article, it talks about couples having to right to have a healthy baby. The procedure that is offered, allows parents to test embryos to determine whether or not their child will have a disease. Many people do not think this is okay, while some agree with it. One couple said that they did not need the procedure before their first pregnancy because no matter what, theywould keep the child. When their daughter was born, she was diagnosed with congenital nephrotic syndrome. Now, they know that there is a one in three chance that their next child will have the disease, which led them to visit the Medical Genteics Center. Some beleive that you do not have the right to a healthy baby, which is why this is such a contriversial procedure. I think that in exetreme cases, this procedure is okay. If a parent has a severe disease, or has already had one child with a disease, I think it is okay to do this procedure to avoid passing it on.
The addition of a child into a family’s home is a happy occasion. Unfortunately, some families are unable to have a child due to unforeseen problems, and they must pursue other means than natural pregnancy. Some couples adopt and other couples follow a different path; they utilize in vitro fertilization or surrogate motherhood. The process is complicated, unreliable, but ultimately can give the parents the gift of a child they otherwise could not have had. At the same time, as the process becomes more and more advanced and scientists are able to predict the outcome of the technique, the choice of what child is born is placed in the hands of the parents. Instead of waiting to see if the child had the mother’s eyes, the father’s hair or Grandma’s heart problem, the parents and doctors can select the best eggs and the best sperm to create the perfect child. Many see the rise of in vitro fertilization as the second coming of the Eugenics movement of the 19th and early 20th century. A process that is able to bring joy to so many parents is also seen as deciding who is able to reproduce and what child is worthy of birthing.
There is a lot of controversy regarding the use of technologies that allow sex selection. Modern science allows parents to choose the sex of their future child. Although this could be an effective way to determine genetic disorders, I do not support screening to be used solely for sex selection as this can lead to social inequality and gender bias.
The advancement and continued developments of third-party assisted reproductive medical practices has allowed many prospective parents, regardless of their marital status, age, or sexual orientation, to have a new opportunity for genetically or biologically connected children. With these developments come a number of rather complex ethical issues and ongoing discussions regarding assisted reproduction within our society today. These issues include the use of reproductive drugs, gestational services such as surrogacy as well as the rights of those seeking these drugs and services and the responsibilities of the professionals who offer and practice these services.
Ethics committee of the American Society for medicine. Preconception gender selection for nonmedical reasons.(May 5, 2001)
...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.
No other element of the Women’s Rights Movement has generated as much controversy as the debate over reproductive rights. As the movement gained momentum so did the demand for birth control, sex education, family planning and the repeal of all abortion laws. On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision which declared abortion "fundamental right.” The ruling recognized the right of the individual “to be free from unwanted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the right of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” (US Supreme Court, 1973) This federal-level ruling took effect, legalizing abortion for all women nationwide.
As women, it is important to remember that the reproductive freedoms we now have can be easily taken away. Some people take for granted the accessibility to birth control, condoms, and abortion. President Bush has initiated policies since coming into office that threaten women’s choices. As the Bush administration takes over, it is important for women and men to come together to support women’s rights. “Bush is setting a tone for anti-choice legislation, so I expect that any legislator who is anti-choice will put something in this year,” said Jessica Morgan, president of the Baltimore chapter of the National Organization for Women (Koenig, B2). Legislative, executive, and judicial action can very possibly come together during this administration to limit or eliminate women’s reproductive freedom.
Every parent's dream of having the perfect baby with pretty eyes, hair, skin, and gifted abilities. Some parents have even taken drastic measures to ensure their babies are born with these gorgeous features and talents. Some parents are willing to genetically manipulate their embryos to create their perfect baby. Bio technology has allowed parents to piece together their ideal human being from their eye color to their mental and physical abilities. Genetic Manipulation in some eyes can be seen as wrong and right in the other if used for the right reasons. I believe that scientists should use this new technology for preventing birth defects and help cure serve illness among babies. I believe genetic manipulation of human offspring is wrong because it’s unethical and causes social issues.
Scientists have edited the DNA of non- viable embryos. It is argued that it’s the first step for parents being able to design their own children. Sarah Knapton (April 23) stresses the risks of Genetic Engineering by questioning the motivations of Genetic scientists. By stating that these genetic scientists want their names in a history books. Genetic engineering implies ethical issues and safety issues. Oxford professor conducted a test. 71 embryos survived and 54 were genetically tested. 28 were spliced and some of the contained a replacement genetic material. It was found that there was unexpected mutations that shouldn’t off been effected by the technique. However, the Chinese scientist states that the embryos were non-viable. Is this a safe practice if the researchers are contradicting themselves? Universal laws guided by ideologies that help promote the health and wellbeing of society using principles of equality and justice. Equality and justice are two values that need to be incorporated in this practice to make sure the focus on genetic engineering will be utilized for life saving reasons.
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
Stating the obvious, no one can choose the gender they are born with. It is possible to change genders through extensive surgery once you are older, but you cannot choose how you are born. Maybe one day there will be the technology and science that provides that possibility, but today it does not exist. It is no new topic, but government mandated health care is something to be addressed. Though people’s opinions go back and forth and there is no leading side, many people have heard of the topic of government mandated birth control. The main argument in support of this is the question of why women should have to pay for something out of their control, while men do not.
Test tube babies have long been stigmatized by society as the unnatural results of scientific dabbling. The words `test tube baby' have been used by school children as an insult, and many adults have seen an artificial means of giving birth as something perhaps only necessary for a lesbian woman, or a luxury item only available to the elite few. The reality is that assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have been helping infertile couples have children since 1978.1 The methods of in vitro fertilization, it's variants, and the other ART procedures are ways for persons that would otherwise have no hope of conception to conceive and, in a rapidly growing percentage of cases, give birth to healthy babies. As the technology has developed, the quality and range of assistance has developed as well. At present, the means of assisted reproduction and the capabilities of these procedures has grown at a somewhat dizzying pace. However, thought to the repercussions of the applications of ART are being disregarded to some extent while the public's knowledge and the understanding of embryologists and geneticists surges forward. It is possible given consideration to things such as the morality of these techniques, the unexplored alternative uses of these procedures, and the potential impact they posses that further development is unnecessary and possibly dangerous.
Women’s reproductive rights are a global issue in today’s world. Women have to fight to have the right to regulate their own bodies and reproductive choices, although in some countries their voices are ignored. Abortion, sterilization, contraceptives, and family planning services all encompass this global issue of women’s reproductive rights.
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...
What is embryo selection and how do the HFEA and PGD help? Will the quest for the perfect child be more powerful than the unconditional love? How does religion play a role in embryos selection? Is it fair to choose embryos that don’t have certain genetic disorders? Is it fair to select the color of the baby hair, eye or sex of the baby? What are the advantages and disadvantages of prenatal gene manipulation? Are early human embryos human beings? What is the definition of a human being? Does an embryo deserve the moral status of persons? Why do embryos not deserve the moral status of person? Most importantly where is the line drawn about what is acceptable about embryo selection? Embryo selection is acceptable because they