Then again it might have a positive effect in places like India where young girls are often killed because they were unwanted.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

The process is very expensive, the only people I've heard use it are fairly wealthy families in first world countries. Also, since as females are less wanted than males in many countries, the sex selection would be for males, which was skewer the already-tipped ratio. I say no, if you're really desperate for a child of a particular sex, then adopt one. I reckon it should only be used for medical reasons (ie, if a baby of a particular sex is more at risk for genetic diseases, as some conditions are only carried through Y chromosomes, and some conditions effect a greater number of females than males).

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Agreed :)

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Finally, a logical reason rather than a religious/hippie shit one.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

This is one of my favorite topics ever! Sometimes it is beneficial for families that have genes for a sex-related disorder like hemophilia. They would opt to have a daughter instead of risking having a son that would mostly likely inherit this high-risk blood disorder. Also, there is a way to do it that doesn't involve discarding embryos or anything. Since sperm determine the sex of the child, a specialist can just sort the sperm and only implant sperms with the X chromosome into the female, and this can have a success rate in the 90 percent range. It can also reduce abortion rates in countries where female fetuses are aborted. Yes, it would still mess with the balance of male and female, but I think it's not as bad as aborting a child just because of their sex.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Then again...it is very expensive, and some people will use it because they favor one sex. I'm not really against it as long as parents have a valid reason to use, and as long as an ethical method of sex selection is used.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Since it's so expensive, only few people can afford to do it, which means it won't really be a problem as long as it stays expensive.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I personally wouldn't do it, but I have nothing against people who might. To each his own, in my opinion.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm tentatively for it, but only if they can prove it would be medically unsafe to have a child of a certain gender. It sounds like such a radical, scary thing. "Sexual selection to choose the gender of their unborn child." But if I said I wanted to use a process of selection to have a child who was safe from some genetic disorder in my family tree it would sound perfectly fine.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

No fucking way. Excuse me for using a sort of 'slippery slope' argument, but after gender it'll be eye and hair color, to certain traits, and soon we'll have genetically built children. That is not natural. That should not happen. I think that the procedure should only be used in order to control possible defects and diseases, and my opinion on that is shaky at best.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Fuck you! There is nothing wrong with that. What do you even mean "not natural"? Oh God, what if they start choosing the eye and hair color? You can tell us dumbass, what type of horrible thing will happen should they be genetically built?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

lol u mad Anyways, genetically engineering children will lead to every parent designing the perfect child. Children with perfect grades, discipline, athletic ability, so on and so forth. It would turn into practically breeding clones of people who are exactly alike. And sure, there's going to be parents who engineer their children to be different, but they would certainly be in the minority. Who could pass up the chance for a perfect child?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Oh God no! A land where every child is perfect! The absolute horror! You must be a retard, everyone being identical would mean zero racism or profiling. Basically what you just described is a fucking utopia, but not for us BECAUSE GOD MADE US AND WE ARE NOT GODS AND... (mindless bullshit ranting)

by Anonymous 12 years ago

- I'm agnostic, leaning towards atheism - Perfection is in the eye of the beholder - You should read a book called The Giver for an idea on what this would do to us - Calm down, woman

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Oh good, I thought you were one of those super Christians. My bad, I always end up thinking that.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

So what about people who want to avoid gender-specific genetic disorders? Should they be prevented from doing so and forced to toss their child into a genetic game of 50-50 Russian Roulette, with failure resulting in a potential life of pain and suffering? Stuff like this has both good and pointless applications.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Read second paragraph of first comment. Gender-specific genetic disorders would fall under that; sorry if it wasn't clear.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Can anyone tell me, simply, how they do that?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_genetic_engineering inb4 wikipedia is not a valid source

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Dude, wikipedia isn't a valid source!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Ikr? I should be hanged

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm against it if they'd just rather have a boy or girl. But if it makes the child less likely to inherit a gender-related disease, I'm all for it.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Serious question: I understand why everyone is saying about doing this for not passing on genetic diseases, etc, but couldn't the child who wouldn't get it still be a carrier? I mean, generally speaking, women carry the gene for hemophilia, correct? So even if you manipulate the genes so that a woman with that gene has a girl, she could still pass on the disease to her sons, correct? Just a thought/question.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Hmm. I'm going to come right out and admit that I don't understand the mindset or causes of the mindset of transgendered people at all. However, what I do understand is that they feel they are a man trapped in a woman's body or vice versa, which often leads to many stressful and painful mental and societal issues for the trans person. My immediate thought is wondering whether or not artificially changing a gender would increase the frequency of someone feeling like they were born into the wrong body. Once again, I'm basing this thought on not much actual knowledge, but it just seems like a less than pleasant possibility. Am I totally wrong in the matter?

by Anonymous 12 years ago