♫anna♫
Global Moderator
Aug 18 2017 - Always In Our Hearts
The Federal Reserve Act is the Betrayal of the American Revolution!
e x a l t | s m i t e
karma:
Posts: 11,769
|
Post by ♫anna♫ on Aug 30, 2010 21:57:19 GMT
www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=6654619&m=6654620The audio link above is from a radio report i heard on NPR radio about couples, who choose the gender of their child. The text of the radio report is below.www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6654619 QUOTE: Some doctors analyze an embryo's DNA so parents can choose to have a male or female placed in the womb. Last year, a survey found that 1 of every 11 Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis treatment was for sex-selection alone. The study by Johns Hopkins University also found that 42 percent of clinics offering PGD offer it for sex selection. Copyright © 2006 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required. MICHELE NORRIS, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris. And we continue now with our examination of pre-natal genetic testing. A growing number of doctors are pushing the ethical limits of the procedure called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD. Some say doctors are going beyond the edge of ethics. Some doctors analyze an embryo's DNA so parents can choose to have a male or female placed in the womb. Last year, a survey found that one of every 11 PGDs was for gender selection alone. That study, by Johns Hopkins University, also found that 42 percent of clinics offering PGD offer it for gender selection. Lonny Shavelson reports. LONNY SHAVELSON: At the Huntington Reproductive Center in Southern California, reproductive specialist Dr. Daniel Potter sits in front of a 32-year-old, anesthetized woman covered in surgical drapes. Dr. DANIEL POTTER (Huntington Reproductive Center): And you can this needle is fairly impressive. SHAVELSON: He's extracting her eggs to be fertilized outside her body, although she's capable of having a baby by natural means. She's asked him to analyze the chromosomes of her embryos and select only the males. Dr. POTTER: Virtually 100 percent of those pregnancies will be the desired gender. SHAVELSON: The American Society of Reproduction Medicine says PGD should be used only when there's a risk of genetic diseases, not just to select gender. Dr. Potter says he's fulfilling his patients' reproductive rights. Dr. POTTER: It's presumptuous of any organization to try to assert that a woman should or shouldn't be able to determine the number of children she wants to have or the gender of these children. SHAVELSON: In his afternoon clinic, Dr. Potter greets a couple originally from India. Dr. POTTER: Today we're going to know more about how many eggs you're going to have. SHAVELSON: The couple had an arranged marriage 15 years ago and have settled in British Columbia, where they've had two daughters conceived naturally. They've traveled here, staying in a hotel a few blocks from Disneyland while working with Dr. Potter to guarantee their next child is a boy. The couple, who do business in the Indian community, say they'd be financially ostracized if they used their names. The husband says he wants a son to inherit their business. The wife says there'll be no one to care for them in their old age unless they have a son. Unidentified Woman: Girls get married, and they move out, right? And with a boy, they will stay with us. Unidentified Man: I really appreciate that she's doing so much to get a son in the family. SHAVELSON: Sujatha Jasudussin(ph) is Indian-American and the program director at the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland, a public affairs group that says it wants responsible use of genetic technology. She says sex selection is sex discrimination. Ms. SUJATHA JASUDUSSIN (Center for Genetics and Society): There is a whole tone in the culture that says girls are just not as desirable. SHAVELSON: Twenty-five percent of the patients who come to Dr. Potter for gender selection are foreign born. Of those from India, Korea and China, he says 90 percent ask him for boys. That adds up to six boys a month in just his clinic, and while there have been no scientific reports on which sex is chosen in all PGD clinics, one study found that while most patients doing IVF would select boys or girls equally, there was a significant preference for girls. Dr. Potter says that of his American born patients, 80 percent ask for girls, and they tell him why. Dr. POTTER: It's about the woman desiring to have the relationship that she had with her mother, seeing their daughter walk down the aisle, going shopping with them. This potential daughter occupies a space in their consciousness just like a living human being, and for them to give up on that, it's like a death. SHAVELSON: Whether parents want a boy or a girl because of gender stereotypes, ethnic traditions or simply because they have one sex and want the other, it's the intensity of that desire that's motivated doctors in many PGD clinics to take it from a procedure designed to detect genetic defects to one that selects boys or girls.
|
|
|
Post by mouse on Aug 31, 2010 9:31:32 GMT
trouble is that they are leaving out the mindset of those who think sons are a blessing and daughters a hinderence there are those who knowing the sex of the child would not be beneficial to the unborn
|
|
|
Post by firedancer on Aug 31, 2010 13:54:27 GMT
I can understand gender selection to prevent passing on a life-threatening disease.
But for any other reason? I would seriously ask - if it matters so much to you whether you have a boy or a girl, are you actually fit to be a mother or father?
|
|
|
Post by mouse on Aug 31, 2010 14:34:40 GMT
better to be happy with what ever you get....
|
|
♫anna♫
Global Moderator
Aug 18 2017 - Always In Our Hearts
The Federal Reserve Act is the Betrayal of the American Revolution!
e x a l t | s m i t e
karma:
Posts: 11,769
|
Post by ♫anna♫ on Aug 31, 2010 15:47:15 GMT
I can understand gender selection to prevent passing on a life-threatening disease. But for any other reason? I would seriously ask - if it matters so much to you whether you have a boy or a girl, are you actually fit to be a mother or father? Quite true firedancer! Some genetic diseases are only passed on to one gender and not the other!
I do feel a certain contempt for the cultures, which see a female child as less desirable, if not undesirable. As far as I'm concerned they can have all their male children and just die out for lack of female children.
I understand the suffering and psychological problems children have, if they are born to parents, who are deeply disappointed with the gender of their child. I don't expect this to just disappear so therefore I wouldn't prevent these gender obsessed parents from having their way via this method.
|
|
|
Post by firedancer on Aug 31, 2010 16:17:06 GMT
I can see the logic of your point Anna. But what worries me is that parents obsessed with gender are probably more likely to carry a stereotypical view of gender roles.
For example, girls should be dainty, frilly and eyelash-fluttering exemplars of the parents' idea of femininity. Boys should be strong, silent sports-playing exemplars of the parents' ideas of masculinity.
What happens if they get a tough sport-loving daughter or a gentle chess-playing son?
Pity the poor little devils then.
Parents who are hung-up on gender tend to be people with hang-ups and in danger of breeding another generation of people with hang-ups, whether it's children over-conforming to role expectations or desperately trying to rebel against them.
Take whatever gender comes and let each child, whether boy or girl be as their nature intended them to be.
|
|
♫anna♫
Global Moderator
Aug 18 2017 - Always In Our Hearts
The Federal Reserve Act is the Betrayal of the American Revolution!
e x a l t | s m i t e
karma:
Posts: 11,769
|
Post by ♫anna♫ on Aug 31, 2010 17:00:50 GMT
I can see the logic of your point Anna. But what worries me is that parents obsessed with gender are probably more likely to carry a stereotypical view of gender roles. For example, girls should be dainty, frilly and eyelash-fluttering exemplars of the parents' idea of femininity. Boys should be strong, silent sports-playing exemplars of the parents' ideas of masculinity. What happens if they get a tough sport-loving daughter or a gentle chess-playing son? Pity the poor little devils then. Parents who are hung-up on gender tend to be people with hang-ups and in danger of breeding another generation of people with hang-ups, whether it's children over-conforming to role expectations or desperately trying to rebel against them. Take whatever gender comes and let each child, whether boy or girl be as their nature intended them to be. All very true Firedancer! But these gender obsessed people won't suddenly change. Wars and crimes against humanity won't disappear either. The best we can do is try to marginalize these mindsets. American and European women should stop marrying men from these cultures, which see female children negatively, as the couple from India did in the article i posted!
|
|
|
Post by sesley on Aug 31, 2010 17:45:45 GMT
this is another example of adults thinking they own the children they produce,the mother wants a child to look after them in their old age and the father a son to look after the family business. Children are human individuals with the right to choose what life they want and how. We are their caretakers not their slave masters. This goes alongside my comments ont he mother who murdered her children because they were different,because they don't fit her profile. If choosing a child on gender for health issues then, thats what morally i believe that is the only grounds a genda can be selected,but when its on because one genda is somehow not good enough for parents then it shoudlbe banned for that.
|
|
|
Post by fretslider on Aug 31, 2010 18:04:33 GMT
"Dr. POTTER: Virtually 100 percent of those pregnancies will be the desired gender."
And there goes the natural balance between males and females in a population. Its a really stoopid idea.
|
|
|
Post by mouse on Aug 31, 2010 18:34:16 GMT
because of the prefference for boys.[and the one child effort].there is a 6 million surplus of men in china who wont get a wife 6 million surplus males...is not good for china or anyone else
|
|
|
Post by beez0811 on Sept 1, 2010 1:54:10 GMT
I'll be happy with either having a boy or a girl. In all reality I would love to have one of each, but if that doesn't happen, oh well. I'll still love my future children no matter what!
I hate that many cultures think that having a daughter is shameful. If it weren't for daughters, there wouldn't be any more sons in the future. We ladies carry these babies for nine months. We are very important!
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 1, 2010 5:29:41 GMT
I can understand gender selection to prevent passing on a life-threatening disease. But for any other reason? I would seriously ask - if it matters so much to you whether you have a boy or a girl, are you actually fit to be a mother or father? If your culture dictates that your son (and his wife if he has one) has the duty to care for his parents, I can understand why it matters. This is more puzzling to me: Dr. Potter says that of his American born patients, 80 percent ask for girls, and they tell him why.
Dr. POTTER: It's about the woman desiring to have the relationship that she had with her mother, seeing their daughter walk down the aisle, going shopping with them. This potential daughter occupies a space in their consciousness just like a living human being, and for them to give up on that, it's like a death.They are going to be SO disappointed if their daughter drifts off to the other side of the world, shops on line and never marries.
|
|
|
Post by mouse on Sept 1, 2010 10:22:25 GMT
this is another example of adults thinking they own the children they produce,the mother wants a child to look after them in their old age and the father a son to look after the family business.. your looking at this from a western perspective...life aint that simple in some other cultures for a variety of reasons....girls are expensive in dowery based cultures..then there are other finacial aspects... men for protection..to run the farm.small holding or just pure male dominatated cultures....then there are the marriage conditions where the girl goes to live with the inlaws and boys bring wives home.....the west and its norms is but a small % of the worlds population..whites just under 10% of the worlds population the rest of the world doesnt necessarily follow our thinking there was an item some time ago in i think the telegraph..dont have a link about some hospital now refusing to give information on the sex of the unborn because of attitudes of some parents
|
|
|
Post by firedancer on Sept 1, 2010 11:46:23 GMT
It's that benighted thing called 'culture' again isn't it? So blinkered they cannot see it is easier to to let boys and girls be their natural selves instead of forcing them into roles laid down centuries ago for entirely spurious reasons.
Unless these cultures are completely stupid they must see that it is preferable and so much easier to drop cultural expectations than to try and manipulate genetics.
China and India, and latterly Indonesia, are getting their comeuppance now with seriously skewed sex ratios in some parts of their countries.
|
|
|
Post by mouse on Sept 1, 2010 12:36:37 GMT
It's that benighted thing called 'culture' again isn't it? So blinkered they cannot see it is easier to to let boys and girls be their natural selves instead of forcing them into roles laid down centuries ago for entirely spurious reasons. Unless these cultures are completely stupid they must see that it is preferable and so much easier to drop cultural expectations than to try and manipulate genetics. China and India, and latterly Indonesia, are getting their comeuppance now with seriously skewed sex ratios in some parts of their countries. 6million batchalors in china..eyes looking out ward for likely brides..wars have been starterd for less but whether these cultures are stupid or not..they exist...and wont be dropped any time soon unless they are sudenly aforded a welfare state...but then there are those within a wlfare state that still choose culture over common semse didnt know anout indonesia though
|
|
|
Post by Big Lin on Sept 2, 2010 21:39:24 GMT
I have a son and a daughter and I love them both equally. So does my husband.
Why anyone would want to make such a big deal out of something like this is beyond me!
|
|
|
Post by beez0811 on Sept 3, 2010 0:19:13 GMT
|
|
♫anna♫
Global Moderator
Aug 18 2017 - Always In Our Hearts
The Federal Reserve Act is the Betrayal of the American Revolution!
e x a l t | s m i t e
karma:
Posts: 11,769
|
Post by ♫anna♫ on Sept 3, 2010 2:28:42 GMT
Right Beez! I have a copy of Gattaca on dvd. That's where we're headed! The only question is which nation will start this genetic manipulation first on a large scale. My suspicion would be China.
|
|