[DEHAI] sex preselection
Salina1997@AOL.COM
Wed, 3 Sep 1997 07:14:37 -0400 (EDT)
Some couples try to choose the sex of their child for medical reasons,
because certain
inherited diseases--for example, hemophilia and a type of muscular
dystrophy--are much
more likely to affect boys than girls. But some people just feel strongly
that they want to
have a child only if they can be sure it will be the gender they "prefer."
Techniques for choosing the sex of a child before conception depend on the
fact that a
child's sex is determined by the father. The reason is as follows. All our
cells contain
forty-six chromosomes, which come in twenty-three pairs. We get one member of
each
pair from our mother, the other from our father. One of the twenty-three
pairs determines
sex. They are the sex chromosomes, called X and Y. Women have two X
chromosomes;
men have one X and one Y. Mature eggs and sperm contain only one member of
each
chromosome pair and therefore only one sex chromosome. Since a woman has only
X
chromosomes, all her eggs contain an X. Since a man is XY, about half his
sperm cells
contain an X chromosome and half a Y. If an egg (which is always X) is
fertilized by a
sperm that contains an X, the child will be a girl (XX); if it is fertilized
by a sperm that
contains a Y, the child will be a boy (XY).
Methods of sex preselection try to favor the X-or the Y-bearing sperm, but
none is very
effective. They rely on observations that Y-bearing sperm tend to swim faster
and would
be more easily damaged by the acidic environment of the vagina than X-bearing
sperm,
whereas X-bearing sperm appear to live longer and be more sensitive to the
alkalinity in
the cervix, uterus and fallopian tubes.
One recommendation is that to improve the likelihood of conceiving a girl,
you should have
intercourse thirty-six to forty-eight hours before ovulation and, for a boy,
try delaying
intercourse until two to twenty-four hours before you ovulate (see "Fertility
Observation" in
Chapter 13). Confusingly, other researchers have come up with the opposite
recommendation: that intercourse a few days before ovulation weights chances
in favor of
boys, intercourse at the time of ovulation very slightly in favor of girls.
Another recommended technique makes use mainly of the differences in the
sensitivities of
X and Y sperm to acid and alkali. Proponents suggest that to load the dice in
favor of a
girl, you use a mildly acidic douche (two tablespoons of white vinegar in a
quart of
lukewarm water) before intercourse, allow only shallow penetration of the
penis (so that
the sperm must spend a longer time in the acidic environment of the vagina),
be in a
face-to-face position and avoid orgasm, which increases the alkalinity of the
vagina. If you
prefer a boy, you use an alkaline douche (two tablespoons of baking soda in a
quart of
water) and reverse the other conditions. Neither method guarantees success,
but they may
improve chances.
Obviously these methods deal only in probabilities. If your genetic history
is such that a
male child would have a fifty-fifty chance of inheriting a disease you want
to avoid, you
may want to be more certain. In that case, you can have a physician determine
the fetus's
sex after you are pregnant, so that you can have a choice of having an
abortion if it is male
or be more prepared for coping with the disease both emotionally and
practically should
you decide to continue the pregnancy. Increasing numbers of sex-linked
diseases can now
be diagnosed in the fetus, so that you don't need to consider abortion unless
prenatal tests
show that the fetus you are carrying has the disease (see "Testing During
Pregnancy" in
Chapter 19). (A group of women advising us on living with a physical
disability expressed
a concern about the pressure to have an abortion in cases of predicted
disability, as each
one was glad herself to be alive. If this society were less demanding of
physical "perfection"
and more helpful to parents and children with special needs, women might
worry less about
having a child with special health problems.)
In the United States, fetal sex usually is determined by amniocentesis, which
cannot be
done until about the fourteenth week of pregnancy. Since it takes another
three or four
weeks to complete the chromosomal analysis, if you decide to abort, it means
a
second-trimester abortion--more painful, risky and psychologically difficult
than early
abortion.
Abortion for reasons of sex selection has become a focal point of the
antiabortion
movement, which has attempted to manipulate qualms about this practice into
opposition to
all abortions. Exaggerating the incidence of sex selection abortions they
claim this is further
evidence of the callousness and selfishness of those who advocate choice.
Feminists in other countries such as India have protested sex selection for
different reasons.
Where there has been strong cultural pressure to bear male children, women
have used
amniocentesis plus abortion to avoid giving birth to female children. In
India, for example,
the situation is so serious that the usual sex ratio has been reversed
resulting in a significant
demographic imbalance in favor of men. Indian feminists have called for an
end to the
widespread use of amniocentesis and chorionic villus tests for sex selection.
Although this
practice is now illegal in places, it continues in a country where female
infanticide is still
practiced. Furthermore, the death rate for girls and women is higher than
that of boys and
men at every stage of their lives, because females have less access to
resources, including
food and medical care.
Studies have shown an almost universal preference for males, especially as
first-born
children. Because of this, population control advocates have supported sex
selection as a
way of limiting population growth. They argue that people often have more
children than
they really want because they keep trying for a boy. Preselecting will
therefore lead to
fewer children born, and if fewer girls are born, there will be fewer women
bearing children
in the next generation.
Among feminists there is disagreement about how best to oppose this practice
and change
the conditions that give rise to it. In both China and India, women's groups
are engaged in
public education and other political campaigns to change the societal values
and attitudes
toward women that are the root causes for this destruction of female fetuses.
Although
some advocate banning the tests, arguing that they do not offer real choices,
others distrust
government intervention and believe that women must ultimately make their own
decisions.
Some oppose sex selection, seeing it as part of a growing trend to create
"made to order"
children. Still others see the effort to police sex selection as part of the
effort to control and
criminalize the behavior of pregnant women.
Although we may disagree about the morality of sex preselection or what to do
about it,
we must recognize the different realities in women's lives and the importance
of supporting
each woman's right to make her own reproductive decisions.