Jump to content

Sex selection

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 222.190.109.119 (talk) at 08:19, 26 October 2010 (→‎External links). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the selection of the sex of offspring. For the evolutionary concept, see sexual selection.

Parents frequently prefer their offspring to be of a particular sex for a variety of reasons. Social sex selection or human sex selection is the attempt to control the sex of the offspring to achieve a desired sex. It can be accomplished in several ways, both pre- and post-implantation of an embryo, as well as at birth. It has been marketed under the title family balancing.

Preference for sex of child

In some cultures, male offspring are desired in order to inherit property, carry on family name, to provide support for parents in old age.

Studies have demonstrated that having sisters, as compared to brothers, can enhance the quality of life of an adult.[1]

Evidence suggests couples in the United Kingdom tend to pick sons and daughters in roughly even numbers.[2]

Most clinics in the United States treat only those parents who already have a child of the other sex.[2]

Methods

Pre-implantation

Two major types of pre-implantation methods can be used for social sex selection.

Sperm sorting - The separation of X chromosome sperm from Y chromosome sperm by flow cytometry. The resulting sorted sperm are used in either artificial insemination or in-vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures.

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) - In sex selection cases, embryos resulting from IVF procedures are genetically tested for X or Y chromosomes. The embryos of the desired sex are then implanted.

No "seamless" method is known to exist where couples take certain measure before sexual intercourse normally.

Post-implantation

Prenatal diagnosis - Amniocentesis and/or ultrasound is used to determine sex of an offspring, leading to subsequent sex-selective abortion of any offspring of the unwanted sex. The more recent technique of fetal blood now makes it possible to test the sex of the fetus from the sixth week of pregnancy.

Post-birth

Sex-selective infanticide - Killing children of the unwanted sex. Though illegal in most parts of the world, it is still practiced.

Sex-selective child abandonment - Abandoning children of the unwanted sex. Though illegal in most parts of the world, it is still practiced.

Sex-selective adoption - Placing children of the unwanted sex up for adoption. Less commonly viewed as a method of social sex selection, adoption affords families that have a gender preference a legal means of choosing offspring of a particular sex.

Ethical concerns

The application of these techniques to humans creates moral and ethical concerns in the opinion of some, while the advantages of sensible use of selected technologies is favored by others.

Listed here are some ethical concerns:

Sexual discrimination - The idea that if one sex is preferred over another, those individuals in the non-preferred sex would be at a disadvantage. Opponents of social sex selection[who?] argue that the procedure would artificially unequalize the ratio of females to males, leading to discrimination, potential violence and abuse of the smaller group.

Eugenics - Many[who?][weasel words] fear that PGD, in general, is a 'slippery slope' leading to a society where 'non-selected' individuals would be discriminated against. PGD is used primarily in the U.S. for the purpose of reducing birth defects and abnormalities, but opponents fear that there is nothing stopping persons from using PGD for more eugenic-based purposes.

Psychological Implications - There may be psychological implications for both the parents and child if the procedure does not produce a child of the desired sex. Furthermore, problems may also arise if the gender-related expectations of the parents are not subsequently fulfilled by the child. However, it may be the case that any child will fail to fulfill particular parental expectations, so perhaps more emphasis should be placed on promoting acceptance and tolerance within parents as opposed to completely banning sex selection.

Conflict with Kantian principles - Many[who?][weasel words] argue that by selecting the sex of their child, parents are using the child as a means of fulfilling their own desires rather than respecting the child as a person and an end in their own right.

In contrast, in an interview study, sex-selection technology providers generally argued that sex selection is an expression of reproductive rights, was initiated and pursued by women, and was a sign of female empowerment that allowed couples to make well-informed family planning decisions, prevented occurrences of unintended pregnancy and abortion, and minimized intimate partner violence and/or child neglect.[3] In contrast, primary care physicians questioned whether women could truly express free choice under pressure from family and community.[3] In addition, primary care physicians voiced the concerns that sex selection led to invasive medical interventions in the absence of therapeutic indications, contributed to gender stereotypes that could result in child neglect of the lesser-desired sex, and was not a solution to domestic violence.[3]

Post-conceptual selection by preimplantation testing (PGD) also involves preferential use of embryos, and termination of pregnancy for gender selection also raises many ethical questions of the abortion debate.

Demographic concerns

In addition to the ethical concerns mentioned, issues of demographics arise in societies where social sex selection is common. A society may exhibit a widespread bias towards having children of a specific gender, either due to cultural biases or economic concerns (e.g. male children may be more employable in the future and thus provide more financial support). When combined with frequent social sex selection, this bias may produce a gender imbalance that has undesirable consequences. This phenomenon has been observed in many nations in the Far East, such as India and China, where social sex selection has produced unnaturally high male/female ratios in the population. China's gender imbalance is further increased by the One Child Policy, although applicable only in most urban populations. In these nations, a lack of opportunity for many men to marry is believed to be producing increases in crime, demand for prostitution, mass emigration, and the selling of brides.[4][5]

Major demographic changes have occurred in China because of sex selection. Chinese government reports show that the sex ratio for newborns is 118:100 (boys:girls), higher in rural areas such as Guangdong and Hainan (130:100) compared to the average of 104:100 in developed countries. It is believed that the ratio would increase further to the point that, by 2020, men of marriageable age would be unable to find mates, resulting in large social problems.[6][7]

Some nations, such as India, have attempted to curtail these gender imbalances with criminal statutes.[8] In contrast, bioethicist Jacob Appel of New York University has argued that governments should pay couples to choose to have female children.[8] According to Professor Appel, "if female babies [were] worth their weight in rupees and yuan, economic and educational opportunities for girls would soon follow."[8]

In contrast, actual experience in Western cultures provides no evidence for any degree of gender imbalance from technologies which have long been available and legal - such as selective abortion or preimplantation embryo testing. When used for family balancing indications in such countries as the United States, pre-conceptual sex selection is widely sought without any preferential selection of males. Thus the right of individual families to determine whether or not to balance gender of offspring in their families is not and will not become, in many countries, a demographic issue. Furthermore, in countries where such demographic issues exist because of strong gender preferences in a segment of the population, regulatory and legal control of, without denial of access to, sperm sorting technology can be utilized to provide individuals with choices while ensuring that equal numbers of boys and girls are produced for population demographic equality.

Although problems such as rising crime rates may be associated with high male-female ratios (more males than females), it is not clear that such problems would arise in connection with low male-female ratios (fewer males than females). In addition, cultural practices such as polyamory and polyandry may reduce or eliminate potential problems. Also incentives for emigration of young singles out of gender imbalanced nations into more gender balanced nations, has often been seen as another solution to reduce potential social problems.[9]

History and folk beliefs

There are a wide variety of social sex selections methods which have not been demonstrated to be effective. Because even implausible and ineffective methods have a "success" rate of 50%, many continued to be recommended by word of mouth.

As early as 330 BC, Aristotle prescribed the ligation (tying off) of the left testicle in men wishing to have boys.[10]

Some people believe that timing conception according to astrological charts can influence a baby's sex,[11] though there is no evidence to support this or any other timing method. A 13th century Chinese conception chart purports to be able to identify the sex of the baby before birth.

During the 1980s, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories teamed with the United States Department of Agriculture to develop the first (and only) successful and repeatable means of separating X- (female) and Y- (male) chromosome bearing spermatozoa.[12] 'Sexed semen' is offered commercially in cattle by a variety of companies including Cogent (UK) and Sexing Technologies (USA). In humans the technique is marketed as 'MicroSort', but is unavailable outside of the USA due to legal restrictions.

Recently, a study published in 2006 indicated that mothers with toxoplasmosis have a significantly higher sex ratio of boys to girls. This has been discussed in connection with the manipulation hypothesis of parasites.[13] Another study found a link between sex and the diet of the mother, but this may be due to statistical chance, and has yet to be confirmed.[14]

Legality

Sex selection is officially prohibited in China, but the Chinese government admits that the practice is widespread, especially in rural areas of China and among lawless groups such as ghettoized migrant workers in cities (despite denials by the government-sponsored studies).[15][16]

Social sex selection is illegal in India. To ensure this, prenatal determination of sex through ultrasound is also illegal in India. These laws are instituted to combat the prevalent practice of sex-selective abortion. However, these laws have generally failed to be effective in rural areas and, despite education efforts, sex-selective abortion continues to be widely practised there.

Sex selection is legal in most of the world, and it is practiced particularly in Western countries, but is more limited in Eastern countries, such as India or China. However, an exception of this is Europe, where the practice of sex-selection is prohibited (bar the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus). There is fertility tourism from the United Kingdom to the United States for sex selection, because preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD, a potential expansion of IVF), which can be used for sex selection, is prohibited in the UK, except when it is used to screen for genetic diseases, while the laws in the US are more relaxed in this subject.[2]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Sisters 'make people happy'
  2. ^ a b c US clinic offers British couples the chance to choose the sex of their child From The Times. August 22, 2009
  3. ^ a b c Puri S, Nachtigall RD (2010). "The ethics of sex selection: a comparison of the attitudes and experiences of primary care physicians and physician providers of clinical sex selection services". Fertil. Steril. 93 (7): 2107–14. doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2009.02.053. PMID 19342036. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. ^ India's lost girls, BBC Online, 4 Feb 2003.
  5. ^ China facing major gender imbalance, MSNBC, 12 Jan 2007.Archive
  6. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20080207012108/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16593301/
  7. ^ "China fears bachelor future". BBC News. April 5, 2004.
  8. ^ a b c Appel, JM. Want a Daughter? Try Paying for Her Opposing Views, August 26, 2009.
  9. ^ "Infanticide, Abortion Responsible for 60 Million Girls Missing in Asia". Fox News. June 13, 2007.
  10. ^ Hoag, Hannah. I'll take a girl, please... Cherry-picking from the dish of life. Drexel University Publication.
  11. ^ Ancient chinese birth gender chart
  12. ^ Garner DL, Seidel GE. History of commercializing sexed semen for cattle. Theriogenology 2008;69: 886-895.
  13. ^ Flegr, Jaroslav; Sulc, J; Nouzová, K; Fajfrlík, K; Frynta, D; Flegr, J (2007). "Women infected with parasite Toxoplasma have more sons" (PDF). Naturwissenschaften. 94 (2): 122. doi:10.1007/s00114-006-0166-2. PMID 17028886. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |quotes=, |laydate=, |coauthors=, |laysource=, |month=, and |laysummary= (help)
  14. ^ Can A Pregnant Woman's Diet Affect Baby's Sex?
  15. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/20080207012108/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16593301/
  16. ^ http://fsi.stanford.edu/news/gender_imbalance_in_china_20081027/

External links


Ethical debates
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sex_selection&oldid=392954208"