Should Parents Be Allowed to Choose The Sex of Their Child?
Student Name
Institution
Course Name & Number
Instructor
Due Date
Should Parents Be Allowed to Choose The Sex of Their Child?
Introduction
Controversies have arisen to question parents’ decisions to use genetic diagnoses to establish the child’s sex. Religious, medical, political, and scientific views have been established to condemn parents’ act of choosing the child’s sex. Although parents achieve a flexible family plan when selecting the babies’ sex, it is ethically controversial to use In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technique to select a baby’s gender. The ethical issue arises because parents make the gender selection for non-medical reasons. Indeed, taboos are against the use of ineffective and unreliable methods for sex selection. Parents that observe scientific methodologies for gene mapping and alteration have dishonored biblical teachings on procreation. This essay aims to review the current developments in sex selection to establish perspectives on scientific progress to effect the baby’s sex-selection process. Parents should be forbidden from preselecting the child’s sex as this act is non-medical and disallowed from a religious standpoint.
Parents Should BE Disallowed From Choosing the Child’s Sex
There should be no sex selection of the child because in vitro fertilization upsets a natural process. According to the Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (2018), it is ethically controversial for parents to use in vitro fertilization to determine the child’s sex. Indeed, the use of reproductive technologies is widely disregarded. For example, public response over sex selection indicates that most individuals are against the practice of implanting embryos in mothers. In this case, implantation leads to sex selection, which is not a natural process. There should be no genetic testing of unborn children to determine gender. The Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (2018) recommends that clinicians adopt policies to disallow parents from selecting the embryos to transfer based on sex. This indicates the child’s selection is unpopular among the public as in vitro fertilization upsets the reproduction’s natural process.
The child’s sex selection should be disallowed as the practice is forbidden as per the religious teachings. Frazier (2019) maintains that genetic editing of the child’s genes is a practice that has been declined under religious grounds. The biblical teachings emphasize reproduction as a natural process for childbearing. There are uncertainties about the embryo’s health during sex selection for the child (Frazier, 2019). This is because of the alteration of the reproduction process to determine the embryo’s sex. Irrefutably, there are no religious practices that allow parents to screen and choose the child’s sex. This implies that parents observing the use of reproductive technology procedures have wrongly manipulated the child’s gender. Gender selection leads to the embryo’s manipulation hence offsetting the natural reproduction process (Frazier, 2019). Parents commit harm during sex selection; therefore, the practice should be forbidden.
In vitro fertilization should be forbidden as it leads to gender bias and not improved characteristics among children. Larsson et al. (2017) assert that parents that select the child’s gender are not guaranteed intelligence or improved health. Parents that choose the child’s sex might be biased towards a particular gender leading to bioethical issues. The gender ratio is likely to be affected when parents can select the child’s gender (Larsson et al., 2017). To maintain the gender ratio, parents should be disallowed from having a control level to determine the child’s sex. Sex selection might not improve the unborn’s conditions leading to an adverse effect on unconditional love. Parents that fail to achieve the desired qualities in children might not be obligated to meet responsibilities (Larsson et al., 2017). This is why sex selection must be prohibited, as it hinders the existence of unconditional love in the family.
Parents should be allowed to select the child’s sex to achieve balance in the family. According to Den Boer & Hudson (2017), IVF procedures have been established through scientific advancements to enable parents to select the child’s gender. For example, artificial insemination allows parents to achieve the child’s sex that they desire. In this case, child selection is justified in geographical locations that have implemented restrictive laws to prohibit childbearing. For instance, parents in China will be necessitated to choose the child’s sex to achieve family balance. Parents should also be allowed to select the child’s sex to ensure that newborns are healthy. Undeniably, genetic disorders adversely impact children’s wellbeing. Concerned parents observe sex selection as the most effective approach to ensure that the offspring is healthy. The child’s gender preselecting enables parents to be prepared for the newborn’s arrival (Den Boer & Hudson, 2017).
Conclusion
To sum up, parents should be disallowed from choosing the sex of their child. Parents should be forbidden from preselecting the child’s sex as this act is non-medical and disallowed from a religious standpoint. An individual’s biblical role is procreation. This implies that the child’s sexual selection is forbidden in the Bible. Scientific advances such as invasive procedures of IVF or artificial insemination have contradicted the biblical teachings about procreation. This is because the sorted gametes used in artificial insemination lead to sex selection. Irrefutably, religious teachings provide that procreation is an individual’s obligation. This implies that parents should not make decisions based on sex selection to establish the child’s gender. Sex selection must be eliminated, although parents have used the practice to determine sex and avoid sex-linked disorders. Therefore, there should be legal viewpoints to make it unlawful for parents to use In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technique for sex preselecting.
References
Den Boer, A., & Hudson, V. (2017). Patrilineality, son preference, and sex selection in South Korea and Vietnam. Population and Development Review, 119-147.
Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. (2018). Disclosure of sex when incidentally revealed as part of preimplantation genetic testing (PGT): an Ethics Committee opinion. Fertility and sterility, 110(4), 625-627.
Frazier, G. H. (2019). Defusing a Ticking Time Bomb: The Complicated Considerations Underlying Compulsory Human Genetic Editing. Hastings Sci. & Tech. LJ, 10, 39.
Larsson, M., Berglund, M., Jarl, E., & Tydén, T. (2017). Do pregnant women want to know the sex of the expected child at the routine ultrasound, and are they interested in sex selection?. Upsala journal of medical sciences, 122(4), 254-259.
