Gender Selection: Between Ethics and Science

One of the most sensitive aspect of medical science is of course the reproductive one. Technology has decreased the rate of infant mortality to a great extent. But now, a time has come where we have to decide about the use of technology in some cases. In the last few years, reproduction technology has allowed us to choose the gender of the yet to be born child and most of the time it is successful, but, it is not 100% perfect yet. So there is a risk that the child may not be of the expected gender and there might be psychological problems with the child who might think that he/she is unwanted. This is a big risk and the parents should be prepared for a child of any gender.

In many countries there are still people who believe a boy is more useful than a girl and raising a girl is a total waste of money. Therefore, this type of society is not ready for gender selection as we can see there are many countries already that have higher ratio of men in comparison to women. On the other hand we can prevent many disease to be transferred to the newborn from his or her parents by genetic engineering. It is like dynamite. It can be used to blow mountains to make highways or it can be used to kill innocents. It depends on the user. Therefore, the innovation should never stop. One thing we can do is to spread the proper use of those innovations and make those beneficial for all. This is what science and technology are for!