Question

Lavinia is 35 years old. She is married to Sebastian who is a year younger than Lavinia. Lavinia and Sebastian are thrilled to have two daughters. One is nine years old. The other is seven.

Lavinia and Sebastian were originally hoping to add a son to their family, but they had mostly given up hope because they hadn’t had any luck conceiving again after their youngest daughter was born. And, they had stopped trying when Sebastian lost his job because money is a bit tight.

Lavinia has recently discovered that she is pregnant. She and Sebastian are excited that she might be carrying the son they have wanted in their family, but they are also stressed at the thought of having another mouth to feed.

When Lavinia met with her physician, she explained that she and her husband still desperately want a boy. Indeed, she expressed that she wants to continue the pregnancy only if the physician can do tests and determine that the fetus she is carrying is male. She has made clear that she wants to terminate her pregnancy and that she will be requesting an abortion if the fetus is not male. She has made equally clear that she wants to terminate the pregnancy and that she will be requesting an abortion if her physician won’t do the tests to identify the sex of the fetus.

Explore the ethics of sex selection involving abortion in contrast to sex selection involving preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) you are welcome to do this by considering whether it would make a difference, in the case study, if Lavinia were asking her physician to identify and implant only a male fetus to begin her pregnancy.

Answer 1

Ethical considerations PGD in the SEX SELECTION differ in different religions and their perspectives on this issue. Ethical issues are always considered in sex selection and preference and prenatal genetic diagnostic techniques rearranging spermatozoa are always considered. In fact selecting the gender of a child before birth is controversial because as it is pointed out in human rights, racial preference is strongly prohibited, so can be gender preference considered an approved decision, as it is in favour of a gender over another, while diminishing the opposite sex's value in society. Thus sex selection favours gender imbalance so it is considered unethical.

It is generally considered ethical when the need for abortion is genuine i.e when there is a medically unfit fetus or incapable uterus to carry on the pregnancy or there could be many more medical reasons for it.

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is a procedure used prior to implantation to help identify genetic defects within embryos. This serves to prevent certain genetic diseases or disorders from being passed on to the child.

Now coming to Lavinia I think she is unethical in this demand i.e killing a fetus or a life just because of its sex should not be done. This is something like wanting and loving or emphasizing the importance of one sex over the other to the extent of killing it and not allowing it to grow is a kind of offence according to me.