The UK’s ban on couples selecting the sex of their children has no ethical justification, a leading ethicist has said.
 |
| Britons have been known to travel abroad to countries such as the United States or India to determine the gender of the IVF embryo before it is implanted into the womb |
In an influential report, Professor Stephen Wilkinson said it would be ethical to allow people to use fertility techniques to choose whether they have a boy or a girl.
His report found sex selection would not create a gender imbalance in the UK unlike in countries such as China and India were boys are more popular than girls.
His report found sex selection would not create a gender imbalance in the UK unlike in countries such as China and India were boys are more popular than girls.
The Professor of Bioethics at Lancaster said: “We examined the ethics of gender preference and sex selection techniques in the British context and found no reason to expect harm to future children or wider society if these techniques were made available for 'social' reasons within our regulated fertility treatment sector.
“People who would prefer their new baby to be of a particular sex often have their own very personal reasons for this, to do with their family's particular circumstances or history.
“We didn't find any ethical arguments sufficient to justify a blanket ban on these people seeking sex selection.
“As IVF and other techniques can now fulfil these often strongly-felt preferences, it's important to ask why wishing for a girl or a boy baby might be so wrong that parents must be stopped from attempting to achieve it in the UK.”
UK parents are currently only allowed to choose the sex of their IVF babies if there is a risk of a sex-related genetic defect such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which affects only boys.
Britons have been known to travel abroad to countries such as the United States or India to determine the gender of the IVF embryo before it is implanted into the womb, or for abortions based on the foetus’ gender.
The report found there was no ethical issue with parents choosing to have a son after only having daughters or vice versa, as it would not create sexism or gender stereotyping.
Professor Wilkinson told BBC’s Today programme: “We have to look at the welfare of parents who feel very strongly about this.
“There are some mums who have a lot of sons and would really like a daughter, where it does have a significant effect on their lives. It seems to me we should help these people because they are suffering.
“There are lots of parenting practices which, whilst we may not approve of them because of the gender stereotyping involved, we don’t intervene and say you can’t parent like that. If that goes for parenting why not the same for sex selection?”
Jackie Leach Scully, co-director of Policy Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre at Newcastle University, said: “One of the arguments against it is the possibility of sexism because by choosing or wanting to choose the sex of your child you are exhibiting some kind of preference and that would be sexism.
“It is buying into or endorsing some pretty strong gender stereotypes which may be sexist. If you want very strongly to have a girl or boy part of you is imagining what that child will be like.”
The report concluded that in the UK it would not be right for “social” sex-selection treatments to be funded by the taxpayer.
UK parents are currently only allowed to choose the sex of their IVF babies if there is a risk of a sex-related genetic defect such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which affects only boys.
Britons have been known to travel abroad to countries such as the United States or India to determine the gender of the IVF embryo before it is implanted into the womb, or for abortions based on the foetus’ gender.
The report found there was no ethical issue with parents choosing to have a son after only having daughters or vice versa, as it would not create sexism or gender stereotyping.
Professor Wilkinson told BBC’s Today programme: “We have to look at the welfare of parents who feel very strongly about this.
“There are some mums who have a lot of sons and would really like a daughter, where it does have a significant effect on their lives. It seems to me we should help these people because they are suffering.
“There are lots of parenting practices which, whilst we may not approve of them because of the gender stereotyping involved, we don’t intervene and say you can’t parent like that. If that goes for parenting why not the same for sex selection?”
Jackie Leach Scully, co-director of Policy Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre at Newcastle University, said: “One of the arguments against it is the possibility of sexism because by choosing or wanting to choose the sex of your child you are exhibiting some kind of preference and that would be sexism.
“It is buying into or endorsing some pretty strong gender stereotypes which may be sexist. If you want very strongly to have a girl or boy part of you is imagining what that child will be like.”
The report concluded that in the UK it would not be right for “social” sex-selection treatments to be funded by the taxpayer.
No comments:
Post a Comment