However, there still exist concerns associated with sex pre-determination. Among them are possible sex ratio imbalances in the future, psychological harm to sex-selected offspring (i. e. , by placing on them too high expectations), increased marital conflict over sex selective decisions, and reinforcement of gender bias in society as a whole. (British Medical Association, 1998) What will happen if somewhere one day due to variety of reasons (ex: high rape rate) people will decide to have only boys? Nobody would like to have a female child, because parents would be scared that one day their precious daughter can be raped or murdered, (nobody knows what will happen in the next 20 years what if physical power will be the single attribute of respect in the society).
Opponents of gender pre-selection claim that God gave life to us, and that it is in His hands to choose the gender of a child.
Such a natural balance had existed for thousands of years and since we all humans made it until today, probably it is the reliable and the correct way things should work in the nature. Natural balance in gender can be easily shaken with the introduction of new technologies that can determine the sex of a future child. Therefore, opponents of sex pre-selection believe that human intervention into the process of life creation will definitely cause negative consequences. What will happen if one day every family decides to have only sons? When their children mature, they will not be able to find a female mate due to a small percentage of females living in this certain area or a country. Of course, you may argue that it sounds not realistic. However, if 30 years ago people were told that it would be possible to make exact copy of an individual (clone) in the year 2005, nobody would believe that such a thing would ever be possible.
Therefore, dis balance of genders in the society can be a serious threat to the future of humankind, and opponents of gender pre-selection believe that this dis balance can be caused by gender pre-determination. Moreover, this can result into serious social problem in the future, when gender roles will be significantly changed due to the dis balance of genders, which can cause unpredicted consequences. Benefits of gender pre-selection People who support sex pre-selection believe that it will do more good than bad to many people around the world. In some countries women are discriminated, and quite often families prefer to have sons instead of daughters.
If gender pre-selection technologies will reach this countries it will be possible to change the situation with gender discrimination. Moreover, in some cultures there are abortions made because of gender bias. With the help of gender pre-selection, all these problems can be successfully solved. People should not forget that the decision made by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine does not simply approve of widespread gender selection instead, it approves of situation-specific actions.
The particular term used by Robertson is gender variety, by which he means that a couple who already has a child of a certain gender should be allowed to ethically choose the implantation of embryos, which would make sure their next child would be of the opposite gender. It is possible to understand families that have already two or more kids of the same gender and desperately want to have a child of another gender. Many families attempted to have a child of a certain gender and did not succeed in it. Besides, a family with children of different genders is a more harmonic one. Children in such families grow together and learn how to interact with opposite sex. Sex selection to balance a family is ethically acceptable but that it wont be popular enough to change Mother Natures gender sorting.
(Caplan, 1998) Aside from the fact that parents have conventionally been given great discretion over their reproductive choices, the ability to aid the desires of couples who have strong preferences about the gender of their offspring is perhaps the strongest reason for allowing gender pre-determination to exist. Thus, it is arguable that unless there is demonstrable and substantial harm to others, then couples should be allowed to choose the gender of their offspring. Parents should leave the selection of non-disease traits to fate, although sex-selection techniques may be useful to limit the size of all-girl families where the parents might otherwise continue having babies until they get a son or of all-boy families intent on having a girl. (Rothman, 1998) Ethical principles Therefore, it is possible to conclude that if the basic concept of gender selection were ethical, then it would be unethical to offer only an inferior method of performing it.
Others, however, see a significant ethical difference between the two methods, noting that sperm sorting does not result in discarding potential babies. This looks like a rather hypocritical objection, at least coming from anyone concerned of the creation of embryos for fertility treatments. Why? Simply because they always create more than it is needed, which necessarily results in some, which may simply be discarded because they are superfluous. If some individuals are really bothered by potential babies being thrown away, then they should protest to these fertility treatments totally.
Ethical guidelines Despite some peoples concerns, there is no reason to think that because we accept gender selection, society will inevitably end up creating designer babies and discriminate against any child that is not perfect. Decisions over how scientific knowledge is used are independent of knowledge and should be taken independently. (Dawkins, 1999) If, however, we are only doing it because we can and because there is a consumer demand, then the path of designer babies remains very much open to us, and there is every reason to think that society will take it. (Gender Selection: Ethical Considerations & New Technologies, Online) It is obvious that it is incumbent upon people to define and create those ethical guidelines and be certain about what we are willing to do and why. Conclusion Genetics gives hope to many people, while we should not forget what harm it could cause at the same time.
The society should be aware of all the negative consequences that can be caused by genetics. At the same time, people should know about great benefits it can give. Main goal of today’s society is to avoid errors while stepping into the new era of scientific revolution, where ethics plays one of the key roles in determining the future outcomes of scientific advance. These are the matters for all members of the society; therefore, its citizens should participate in the debates over ethics of sex pre-determination, because each opinion supporting or disapproving the practice of gender selection is valuable..