Due to current technology, it not unheard of for future parents to choose their offspring’s gender. The prevalence of gender preference in certain cultures and communities which thus makes it imperative to understand some the attitudes behind this practice. Despite the motives behind gender selections, many people argue that it could cause gender discrimination and gender imbalance within communities. So the question arise: Should parents be allowed to select their offspring’s sex?

In a study conducted by the Reproductive Biotechnology Research Center in Tehran, Iran evaluated the attitudes and sexual preferences of couples when using sex selection technology. With a population sample of 100 women, participants were asked a questionnaire regarding their opinion to embryo sex selection. These families must include a male and female parents with a previous child. Some examples of the questions include: “How important is it for you to determine the sex of your baby?”, “Are you satisfied with the sex composition of your current child?” and “To what extent are you satisfied with sex selection of your baby in case of non-medical reason (to have an equal number of boys and girls, to have children of any sex, etc.)?” The results indicated that in choosing a specific gender it would help benefit their familial imbalance and could help reduce illegal abortion. There wasn’t significance of the actual gender of the baby.

In 2003, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) released restrictive recommendations based on sex selection. They believe that sex selection can be an option if there is some potential harm (i.e. genetic disorder) to the future offspring. Additionally, they argue that if a parent is willing to determine their baby sex, then they lack the character trait of acceptance. To clarify, let’s say a couple wants a female in their family instead of a male. However, the family receives news that they are having a male. Then according to the HFEA, parents are more likely discriminate their child. The parents should be able to accept all the characteristics of their child. Other ethical arguments that HFEA argues includes “sex selection as playing God; sex selection as an inappropriate use of medical resources; the potential for unequal access to sex selection technology; possible resultant disruption of the sex ratio; stepping onto the slippery slope to designer babies; gender discrimination and negative effects on the welfare of children produced using sex selection technology.” A lot of the arguments that listed above are in not included in McDougall paper. Instead, she mentions another ethical argument: parental choice of their child’s sex. The paper “Parentally: An Argument Against Sex Selection”, Rosalind McDougall argue that these clause interferes with parents ability to have choices when choosing the sex of their child and is not clearly define. McDougall states if a child produced by sex selection and there is no harm, then the harm threshold is not met. McDougall claims that the HFEA should revise their position since sex selection does not harm the offspring.

Although in the first article, attitudes for sex selection could bring benefits to the Iranian women, I felt like the second paper wanted to make an argument against the HFEA but there wasn’t even evidence to support their claims. Especially since it deals a lot with ethics. Ethics itself leads to controversies since everyone has different sets of ethics. As for my position for sex selection, I don’t believe that it should be the option. Many cultures believe that males should be the dominant sex that could skew more people to create males. Because of this, there could be a gender imbalance and discrimination. The gender imbalance could as affect the world population tremendously that is, of course, there are more males than females. I also believe that nature should be the one to choose the gender of the child. Like all human interruptions with mother nature, it could potentially cause some negative effects. What could those be? I’m not completely sure. Whatever my body decides to create, then that what was meant to be.

Ahmadi, S. F., Shirzad, M., Kamali, K., Ranjbar, F., Behjati-Ardakani, Z., & Akhondi, M. M. (2015). Attitudes about Sex Selection and Sex Preference in Iranian Couples Referred for Sex Selection Technology. Journal Of Reproduction & Infertility, 16(1), 36-42.

McDougall, R. (2005). Acting Parentally: An Argument Against Sex Selection. Journal Of Medical Ethics: The Journal Of The Institute Of Medical Ethics, 31(10), 601-605.