IFV parents "should be able to choose the sex of their child"

BillieTheBot

Couples undergoing IVF could be allowed to select the sex of their baby under proposals put forward by MPs.
A controversial Commons Science and Technology Committee report said more decisions on fertility treatment should be made by patients and their doctors.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4376041.stm

For or against?

Being able to choose the sex of the child does seem like a first step towards 'designer babies' to me. On the other hand, it should not necessarily mean that it would lead towards that and we'd end up being able- or allowed- to choose eyes and hair colour as if were at our local car dealership. Lines can be drawn.

Then again, is the sex of a child so important? Would this mean that some people would choose boys over girls, for various background reasons?

Former Member

I've just seen this on the news. I disagree with choosing the sex of your baby, and any of the other things mentioned like eye and hair colour. You should just be happy if you have a healthy child regardless of what sex they are. People nowadays are never satisfied with what they have got, next door to me have 4 boys, they are happy, their kids are healthy, just because they don't have a girl doesn't make a difference. Embryo technology should stick to helping those people who have problems concieving and nothing else.

Former Member

I'm curious how this will work in some PCT's I know some now wont tell you the sex of the baby because of concerns for the un-born child, it would be quite odd if that happened yet others were able to choose.

I dont really see it as a 'step too far' I just think its something that should be up to fate, you choose to be a parent then you choose to take the risks that go with that.

Former Member

I don't think that couple should be able to choose the sex of their baby. Why should they be given that choice? At the end of the day it's kind of selfish to HAVE to have a certain sex baby. What's wrong with just having a baby and being happy whether it's a boy or a girl?

Former Member

I think this is very, very wrong.

It simply enforces the views of parents as owners and the child as a commodity.

Furthermore it could be dangerous in a demographic sense, maybe not so much now, but maybe in the future or in certain susections of society......

Personally i see clear dengers and almost no positives, so what is the point?

I am also guessing that such procedures would cost money, time and effort which could almost certainly be better directed elsewhere.....

Former Member

I don't see any problem with it. I suspect most parents wouldn't care and will love equally, but it does giver a choice to those for whatever reason want one of a specific sex.

Former Member

But why should they choose, they want a child, its not something you order out of a cataloge.

Former Member

you dont get to choose when you have a baby naturally so why should they

Former Member

I'm a bit staggered by the bit in article about creating 'chimeras' by implanting human cells in animal foetuses

Former Member

I find this whole concept deeply disturbing.

You either want a child, or you don't IMHO. The sex shouldn't be an issue.

However, we do allow gender checks where there is a genetic disorder affecting one gender...

Former Member

I don't feel massively strongly about it either way. I guess i learn more towards the against side, probably becuase i just really don't see the need for it. Surely you feel ready for a child or you don't. I can't see how someone would be ready for a boy and not for a girl or visa versa.

Former Member

Would like to point out, some diseases are only present on the male gene. If parents knew they were likely to have a boy with a serious disease (i.e. Muscular dystrophy) I don't see the harm in opting for a girl. If it's done out of preference, that's a different matter, even though I seriously hope I don't have a load of screaming whinging girls when I'm a father but that's a different matter altogether.

Former Member

Would anyone actually want a designer baby though? I can't wait until I'm holding my firstborn in my arms and grinning and pointing out all the similarities to me and his/her mother. But if you knew it was going to have blue eyes, if you took all the spontaneity out of it, it would be less 'exciting'. I think a baby at one point in its life grows up and has to make its own decisions and be itself, not an image of its parents or an image of what they want, it has to do what it wants to do etc.

Former Member

One of those things that I think, sadly, is pretty inevitable eventually.

Hugely dangerous if certain countries start using it; where boys are considered much more desirable than girls, we could end up with a total population crash.....

Former Member

Butterflykisses wrote:

One of those things that I think, sadly, is pretty inevitable eventually.

Hugely dangerous if certain countries start using it; where boys are considered much more desirable than girls, we could end up with a total population crash.....

In china, apparently, they sometimes neglect girls to death because boys are so much more desirable and its one child per family. The statistics prove this:

Infant mortality rate         1981    1990    1995    1999-2000

Male IMR, reported            38.12   28.29   27.37   21.98
Female IMR, reported          36.12   32.77   36.29   30.98

As you can see, the infant mortality rates for girls are a lot higher (deaths per 1000 births, by the way). Although this could be just random, I think it is significant statistical evidence when there is so wide a difference, especailly in a coutnry like China where there are thousands of people to 'average it out'

Former Member

this contreversial message was typed and brought you you by MrG:

yes but china sucks at many things, not just the oppression of life

Former Member

Exactly. It's a well-known effect of their one-child policy; boys are considered to be more likely to be able to support the parents when they get old, and the parents won't have to pay a dowry when a son gets married, whereas with a daughetr they will. So when a couple are only allowed one child, and it's a girl, the poor kid suspiciously disappears and they get another pop to try and have a boy. You're allowed to pick what you get and there'll be about 100 boys to every girl and the population will drop hugely. Kinda a good thing for China, as it's very overpopulated, but not the way to go about it.....

Former Member

Butterflykisses wrote:

Exactly. It's a well-known effect of their one-child policy; boys are considered to be more likely to be able to support the parents when they get old, and the parents won't have to pay a dowry when a son gets married, whereas with a daughetr they will. So when a couple are only allowed one child, and it's a girl, the poor kid suspiciously disappears and they get another pop to try and have a boy. You're allowed to pick what you get and there'll be about 100 boys to every girl and the population will drop hugely. Kinda a good thing for China, as it's very overpopulated, but not the way to go about it.....

The world, everything, runs like a river following its natural course. If we decide to build dams of unnatural legislation, the river will still flow, it will just find another course, that perhaps wont be the most natural flow.

Former Member

How poetic!

Former Member

I don't think I agree with IVF full stop.

Former Member

choice ...
is becoming a word i dislike.
it is becoming to mean selfish in my wee brain.

Former Member

morrocan roll wrote:

choice ...
is becoming a word i dislike.
it is becoming to mean selfish in my wee brain.

:thumb:

Who says age doesn't bring wisdom?

Former Member

why should they choose though?

knobs no matter how stable our economy is i want to vote these cunts ot of power

even in terms of sheer pragmatism choosing a boy or girl doesnt help

argh im goin to move soon, luby help me :$

Former Member

Were you drunk when you posted that ^ ?

Former Member

Toadborg wrote:

Were you drunk when you posted that ^ ?

Former Member

Haemophilia is also only carried by boy sperm isnt it? and sickle-cell anaemia?

Former Member

nicebutdim23 wrote:

Haemophilia is also only carried by boy sperm isnt it? and sickle-cell anaemia?

yes how does that affect social reasons for having a boy/girl

Former Member

nicebutdim23 wrote:

boy sperm

There is another kind?

Former Member

girl sperm.

its the chromosome the sperm is carrying which determines the sex - boy sperms and girl sperms.

i don't agree with selection of a boy or girl coz you have one preference, but if its between an ill child or a healthy one through sperm selection then i can understand why it would be done.