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Public release date: 24-Sep-2003


Contact: Brent Waters
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412-585-0842
Science and Religion Information Service

SEX SELECTION FOR SOCIAL REASONS: RELIGIOUS AND MORAL PERSPECTIVES

Two reports in the 25 September 2003 issue of Human Reproduction suggest
that the coming availability of sex selection technology is not likely
to skew the balance between the sexes. Two experts in religion and
reproductive technology respond to this report and to the way it might
be used in the ethics and public policy debate over the availability of
sex selection
technology.

All quotes are free to use by journalists in any news medium. Contact
information is provided and follow-up interviews are encouraged.

1. Statement by Karen Lebacqz, Ph.D., an expert in religious and
feminist bioethics and professor, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley,
CA. "According to this survey, allowing sex selection in Germany and in
the UK would be unlikely to skew the 'gender' balance. Authors mean the
'sex' balance, since the issue is biological sex at birth, not gender.
Gender is a learned social position. One can be born female but grow up
to live and work as a man. One can be born male but grow up to live and
work as a woman.  "Thus, the first questions that come to my mind in
response to this announcement are: why do we equate sex with gender, and
why do we fear a gender imbalance? Many societies experience times when
there is an imbalance
in biological sexes, and they make interesting adaptations. They may
permit polygamy, raise a 'male' child into a female role, encourage or
at least not punish same-sex partnerships, etc. There is nothing
intrinsically wrong with having an imbalance of biological sex in a
society. Why, then, is it such an issue?

"The answer is surely because we presume that a great imbalance in sex
distribution will correlate with an imbalance in social power as well.
For example, what if the results of this survey were different? What if
95% of respondents in one or both places wanted a girl child first? Or
wanted girl children exclusively, and would use the technology to ensure
their preferences? Would there then be great public resistance? I
suspect so! But would the resistance be based on a fear of sex
'imbalance' or would it be based on a resistance to women taking over
the world?

"Finally, we must ask why people would not use technology when they have
a strong desire to have "one of each." Suppose the first child is a boy.
If, as was strongly the case in the UK, they then want a girl, why not
use technology to get this result? The rather strong resistance to the
use of technology (or was it to the money needed to secure it?!)
suggests that many people think there is something intrinsically wrong
with using technology to satisfy our desires for children of a
particular sex. Perhaps it is one of the few places of 'wonder' left in
our world and we are wise to resist controlling every aspect of human
life."

2. Statement by Brent Waters, D.Phil., author of "Reproductive
Technology: Toward a Theology of Procreative Stewardship." Director, The
Jerre L. and Mary Joy Center for Ethics and Values and Associate
Professor of Christian Social Ethics at Garrett-Evangelical Theological
Seminary, Evanston, IL.  "The conclusion of the report presumably
reassures us that we need not worry about sex selection techniques
because the ill-effect of skewing gender balance will not occur. The
majority of parents do not intend to use this technology--at least not
in Germany and the United Kingdom.

"There are two reasons, however, why we should be skeptical about this
reassuring conclusion. First, we do not know how parents would respond
outside of these two European cultures. Whether gender balance becomes
skewed if sex selection techniques were readily available in cultures
placing a higher value on one sex or the other remains an open question.
This is especially the case in regimes attempting to restrict population
growth.

"Second, gender balance is not the only ethical issue at stake. It is
simply assumed that selecting the sex of offspring is a matter of
preference and not morality. Yet it is at least arguable that parenthood
is characterized by the unconditional rather than conditional acceptance
of children, a quality that is clearly eroded by the availability of sex
selection technology. The way the research for this report was conducted
merely reinforces the growing perception of children as commodities
satisfying the
desires of their parents.

"Sex selection technology is but one more tool for developing a market
in desirable children. The most promising aspect of this report is the
fact that most respondents have no intention of using sex selection
techniques, reflecting, I believe, a moral intuition that there is
something inherently wrong with the process itself. That is a healthy
perception that needs to be reinforced through laws and policies
governing the availability and use of selection technology."

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expressed a prior interest in receiving similar information for research
and educational purposes. 

 

For more information go to:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-09/sari-ssf092303.php