Brave New Babies

I think that having the ability to determine gender has both pros and cons. The deciding factor (of if we should use this technology) should be whichever one (pros or cons) outweighs the other. But really that is an opinion and therefore will probably be debated for a long time. Personally I believe that deciding the gender of one’s baby has more cons to it. As the article states, history has shown that cultures will value one gender over the other and, with the new technology, it could lead to gender discrimination (the chart really has nothing to do with gender preselection but it has some interesting facts on gender discrimination). It also seems unfair that only relatively well-off parents could afford such a procedure. And with all the things we waste money on, should it really be on a child’s gender when either gender should be good enough?

However, I don’t think that people shouldn’t go as far as say that this technology will lead to choosing intelligence etc. because, again as the article states, there are more factors to those characteristics. What I object to is the desire to create a “perfect”, “balanced” family. There is no such thing as a perfect family and the desire for perfection shouldn’t be the goal of a family anyway. I think that if parents aren’t ready for one gender then their not ready for either; they should be able to be happy with either gender. Plus, the fact is some of those gender-chosen babies might be gay or transgender probably destroying the “perfect” family image that the parents created. If someone was really focused on one gender, there are a lot of babies who need adoptive parents. But in the end, gender shouldn’t define how much a parent loves or wants their child.