By: Don F. Caldwell
Is a baby’s life important?
Would it be more important if it were a boy instead of a girl, or a girl instead of a boy?
Would a parent profess that each of his or her children are just as important to them?
Would a girl love you just as much as a boy (or vice versa)? Could you say the same about them?
Choosing the gender of a child is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. With advances in genetic testing, science is able to determine the sex of a fetus at an increasingly early age.
This practice is illegal in some countries, but it IS LEGAL in the United States.
“There is no official tracking on gender selection procedures, there is anecdotal evidence that Americans choose girls over boys, Slate reported. Google data shows that “how to have a girl” is searched three times more than “how to have a boy” in the U.S., and many fertility doctors say 80 percent of parents who undergo the procedure desire girls.”
“A study published in the online journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online in 2009 found Caucasian-Americans preferentially select females 70 percent of the time, while those of Indian or Chinese descent typically chose boys. Generally, women cite a “yearning for female bonding” as the reason for choosing girls, according to Slate.”
Efforts earlier this year to band sex selective abortion in the House of Representatives was rejected by both Republicans and Democrats, as they both try to appeal to women voters before the November elections.
The proposed law would have made it a crime to have an abortion based solely on the sex of the baby.
If one were to agree that abortion is a war against women, then considering how abortions of this nature (In the United States) targets baby boys, could this not be considered a war on men as well?
If one believes this form of sex selective abortion to be acceptable, then why wouldn’t a woman be able to abort a baby based on race? What if it didn’t have blue eyes? Perfect teeth?
Where would it stop?
The “one-child” policy in China, as well as the studies mentioned above, highlights the importance parents in Asian countries place in having male children over female. Many parents in foreign countries are more likely to focus on things such as the financial consequences of having a boy versus a girl. Considerations regarding the payment of dowries or whether a male child would be better able to contribute income to the family are not often thought of in the United States.
“Well-off foreign couples are getting around laws banning sex selection in their home countries by coming to American soil — where it's legal — for medical procedures that can give them the boy, or girl, they want.”
However, in the United States, parents are more likely to choose to have a girl over a boy, where such financial or cultural considerations have less meaning.
“While countries like China and India have been known to selectively screen for male fetuses, doctors report in the U.S. a different kind of sex selection is taking place. Mothers are spending thousands of dollars on reproductive procedures to ensure they become pregnant with a girl, Slate.com reported. “ – Fox News.com
Why, when given the chance, do we see more value in one sex as compared to another? Is it the expense we see them causing us? Would we see a child in terms of which would be more able in taking care of us during retirement?
Do poorer countries favor boys because they will help them financially but richer countries favor girls because they don’t have to worry about finances?
This also could perhaps foreshadow the preferences people will have in future children. With the continued advances in genetic testing and genetic engineering, we are / will be able to choose certain characteristics in our future children.
We can in many cases now determine if a child will be born with a congenial disease, and will in the future be able to engineer other qualities such as the color of their skin / eyes as well as other characteristics.
Would you like to design your own perfect baby?
Why?
Sources:
Fox News - Parents Choosing Girls Over Boys In Sex Selective Procedures
MSNBC.COM - Wealthy Couples Head To US To Pick Sex of Babies
