Sunny Days | Mum Said/Dad Said: Natural Selection

Written by Jayne Kearney and Chris Howe

Wednesday, 01 September 2010 14:56

Healthy babies are the dream of everyone who wants to be a parent, that’s a given. But our parenting dreams don’t always end there. For a variety of reasons some people hope for a child of a specific gender. While the technology is available, its use (with some exceptions) is illegal in Australia. Jayne Kearney and Chris Howe look at the shades of grey surrounding gender selection.

MUM SAID...

One of the oldest lines in the parenting book is: “I don’t care if it’s a girl or a boy as long as it’s healthy”. Of course a healthy child is the ultimate aim of all parents, but exactly how true is the first part of that sentence? How many of us harbour a secret desire for a child of a certain gender - even if it’s something we will never admit to in public? And now that gender selection technology is available, should parents be able to choose the sex of their future children?

I am considered ‘lucky’ in that I have a pigeon pair. But I don’t like to use the term ‘lucky’ because it presupposes a range of things, especially in regards to single gender families. However, if I’m completely honest I think that before I had kids I had a preference for a son. It turns out that when my firstborn was a daughter she was such a delicious surprise that, after my boy was born I longed for another little girl. I lost my second daughter at 21 weeks gestation and never has the concept of ‘as long as it’s healthy’ been so true. For this reason you might imagine I would be lukewarm when it comes to the issue of medically assisted gender selection.

But I think it’s more complex than that. Having watched family members and close friends experience the trauma of fertility challenges and the tragedy of baby loss, I have found that my view on a range of assisted reproductive technologies has been coloured by what I have witnessed.

I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that many of us know someone who has conceived a child using some form of reproductive technology - you may even have used such technology yourself. In that case where do we draw the line when it comes to when and where we use the medical advances available to us?

If the argument ‘for’ IVF includes the alleviating of the distress experienced by the reproductively challenged, how do we then argue against such things as medically assisted gender selection? Australia currently allows families dealing with gender specific inherited conditions such as haemophilia to utilise sex selection of embryos, but consider parents who have lost a son or daughter. Should they be allowed to make a choice regarding the gender of their next child? How do we measure the depth of a person’s pain when negotiating the shades of grey?

One of the biggest arguments in opposition to reproductive technology is the idea that humans shouldn’t play ‘god’. But, regardless of your spiritual persuasion it’s pertinent to ask what are the moral, ethical, non-religious objections to assisting in the creation of life?

Sometimes we are led to believe that our technological evolution is threatening our ability to keep pace with it, both ethically and morally. But, for my money, ensuring individuals have the freedom to make informed choices supersedes the fear of our brave new world. We’re in it now but surely the rules haven’t really changed.

DAD SAID...

Obviously I’m insane. Or simply on the path to being well rested. Because, as the horror of sleepless nights fades into memory, the twinkle has returned to my eye. And my wife is responding with a certain come-hither look. Yup, we’re ‘trying again’. Or thinking about trying again, at least. Because, if I’m honest, when I think about it really hard, I baulk a little, simply because my second child was a bad sleeper. Really bad. Hence the insanity.

And when it comes to the theoretical new spud, while any child is welcome - and let’s face it, fate’ll probably serve up twin girls - I’d really like a son.

Which brings me to IVF gender selection. It’s so perfect. No fifty-fifty messing about. No ancient Chinese calendars sourced from a 1965 Women’s Weekly. No ‘hands off’ for a week wearing loose or tight undies depending on your preference. No nine daughter or six son families trying one… more… time. Just plop some (already highly abused) sperm into a spinning centrifuge and separate the boys from the girls. See, boy sperm are heavier. Or lighter. Well, I’m sure the IVF doctor knows. Plus they have another way of separating them involving a laser that I don’t understand but sounds really cool. Mix up the chaps with a handy egg and there you have it. Guaranteed family balance. User pays and the tax payer doesn’t have to shell out six baby bonuses for each time the toast lands butter side down.

While my wife and I are lucky enough that we’d be able to scrape together the funds to try this, it turns out that it’s illegal in Australia. That’s right, here. Instead of shaking my head at the crazy Yanks (where, it turns out, gender selection is legal) it’s us, the Aussies, that have me stunned.

IVF is 30 years old. It seems commonplace now. Of course, in 1980 IVF was derided as the start of designer babies and people argued that couples should be happy to remain childless. Or perhaps to take the adoption option. But those arguments seem odd now. Odd and even insulting to IVF parents.

But those same arguments are trotted out now against gender selection. ‘Designer babies’; ‘Accept your fate’; ‘Why not adopt?’. None are valid, any more than they are valid against IVF.

And while gender selection may reinforce prejudices against women in other cultures, Australia isn’t one of those cultures. During the five years gender selection was available in Australia before being banned in 2005, about 250 couples used the technology out of the one and a half million children born. Sixty percent selected a girl. When it comes to our children, gender prejudiced we aren’t.

Where does that leave my wife and I? As we can’t afford to travel to Thailand or some other place with a working science lab, we’ll just have to try our luck. And I’ll be fine with that.

Then again, if anyone can confirm the heavier/lighter argument and give me directions to a park with a working children’s merry-go-round, the wife and I might just try making our own luck. As with anything to do with parenting, it’ll be crazy and fun all at the same time.

Gender Selection in the Media:

Reproductive technology such as IVF has become almost commonplace in the modern world, but some of its potential applications such as gender selection still evoke passionate debate on both sides. This recent excerpt briefly outlines the current state of play on gender selection in Australia.

Roxon Uncomfortable With Sex Selection Excerpt from SMH , March 13, 2010

“Health Minister Nicola Roxon says the federal government isn’t pushing for a ban on baby gender selection technology to be lifted and she’s personally very uncomfortable with the proposal.
The practice of choosing the sex of a baby has been banned for the last five years. Limited exceptions exist where it can be shown that a child of a particular gender faces a high risk of inheriting a genetic disease from a parent.

The five-year moratorium expires this year and the National Health and Medical Research Council is reviewing its guidelines. Ms Roxon said she was happy for a review and to hear the arguments for and against a change.

Advocating for change is IVF pioneer Professor Gab Kovacs who says some parents already travel to countries such as the United States and Thailand to choose the sex of their children.
He says some parents are willing to pay up to $15,000 for the technique, and the opportunity to choose a baby’s sex should remain.”

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Yvette Vignando said:

I don't agree with gender selection, mostly
My husband and I have three boys. The first two were born two years apart and we only intended to have two children. Then we changed our mind and had another one - a boy. So many people thought we had "tried for" a girl. Not true. We simply wanted another child and another opportunity for a parent-child relationship. I confess I was curious about how it might be different to parent a girl but I was totally happy to have another boy if that was the end result - and it was.

On the other hand I can relate to the idea of wanting a child of a particular gender for all sorts of emotionally-valid reasons. (Although using the term "emotionally-valid" is already so subjective that I'm going to steer away from that comment immediately!)

I've thought about whether parents should be able to utilise science to choose the gender of their children and my view is that I have strong reservations about it (except in one isntance which I will mention below). Perhaps it is a purist view but I think there are 'slippery slope' issues where parents might make this decision for what could be seen to be ethically 'wrong' reasons. What might those reasons be? I can't actually define them now that I think about it - but it's something along the lines of valuing one gender over another. I would be very interested to read something about this by the St James Ethics Centre. I think you should ask them.

It's very hard to legislate for when it is "wrong" to select gender without excluding all sorts of arguably "right" reasons.

I'd like to keep an open mind but at the moment - I think there is one instance in which it should be legal to select gender - when there is a genetic predispostiion to a disease or disability that is associated with gender - then I think parents should be able to avail themselves of the technology.

Wed (01/54) - 08:54 am
Votes: +0

The NDM said:

	It's a muddy issue Again, an interesting piece from the two of you. Go, team! Chris, they say in times of conflict women give birth to more males. So I say you should take up competitive arm-wrestling together?
	report abuse vote down vote up

Wed (01/50) - 10:50 pm
Votes: +0

Baby girl in heaven..... said:

I want Gender Selection in Australia.......My baby girl is in heaven, I now have 3 boys.
I dont believe gender selection should be available to everyone but I think there should be some circumstances that it should be allowed.
We had our first baby a girl Janai Ella at 24wks and she survived for 7 weeks then we lost her since then I have had 3 beautiful boys, Jack 5, Noah nearly 3 and Levi 1. We love our boys very much but still have the want for a girl. I totally get it when people say as long as they are healthy, all my babies have been premmie 24wks, 32wks, 31wks & 33wks so it has been very touch and go with every pregnancy. After losing our little girl I used to just say as long as I get to take them home but now since having the 3rd boy I still want to have that little girl but unless I could guarantee the next would be a girl (with gender selection) & without leaving australia I am not sure I could go through the drama of my pregnancies.
I know a lot of people wouldnt agree with me but until they have lost a child of their own, then they dont know how it feels.

Mon (11/30) - 07:30 pm
Votes: +0

cisco transceivers said:

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Wed (01/41) - 09:41 pm
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