Title: Gender selection. Gender selection: a crime against humanity or the exercise of a fundamental right?
Authors: C Sureau
Journal: Human Reproduction, 14 (4):867-868, 1999
Title: Gender selection. Sex preselection: an aid to couples or a threat to humanity?
Authors: G Benagiano and P Bianchi
Journal: Human Reproduction, 14 (4): 868-870, 1999
Title: Gender selection. The reproductive option of sex selection
Authors: JL Simpson and SA Carson
Journal: Human Reproduction, 14 (4): 870-872, 1999
Title: Ethical and social issues in prenatal sex selection: a survey of geneticists in 37 nations.
Authors: DC Wertz and JC Fletcher
Journal: Social Science and Medicine, 46 (2):255-273, 1998
In a recent 37-nation survey of 2903 geneticists and genetic counselors, 29% would perform prenatal diagnosis (PND) for a couple with four girls who want a boy and would abort a female fetus. An additional 20% would offer a referral. The percentage who would perform PND in the United States (34%) was exceeded only by Israel (68%), Cuba (62%), Peru (39%), and Mexico (38%). In all, 47% had had requests for sex selection. There appears to be a trend toward honoring such requests since a similar survey in 1985. This paper discusses reasons for this trend and the ethical dilemmas of refusing patient requests in societies where individual autonomy is stressed.
Title: Ethics of sex selection for family balancing. Why balance families?
Authors: K Dawson and A Trounson
Journal: Human Reproduction, 11 (12): 2577-2578, 1996.
Title: Ethics of sex selection for family balancing. Family balancing as a morally acceptable application of sex selection
Authors: G Pennings Journal: Human Reproduction, 11 (11): 2339-2346, 1996
Family balancing is defended as a condition for the morally acceptable application of sex selection techniques. This specification is able to explain a large part of our intuitions on sex selection. Moreover, it provides a coherent framework which defines the conditions for the application of sex choice technology in such a way that the three major counterarguments are dismissed: the firstborn argument; the alteration of the sex ratio and the inherent sexism argument. Finally, four guidelines for the application generated by the family balancing stipulation are presented. These rules are the following: 1) sex selection is unacceptable when the family is balanced; 2) the treatment can only be applied to achieve a child of the outnumbered sex; 3) sex selection cannot be accepted for the first child; and 4) the rules mentioned above are not applicable if there is a medical reason to avoid a certain sex. Key words: ethics/family balancing/sex predetermination/sex selection