Should people be allowed to choose their baby's sex?

No

5 of 58

by Michael Greaney

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There is something of a "law of unintended consequences" when dealing with human beings. Paradoxically, what people think they want is frequently what they end up hating. The ability to choose inevitably carries with it a certain "buyer's remorse" over the "path not taken." In a not untypical marital spat, it's common for one spouse to chastise the other with, "I could have married John/Jane Doe instead of you!"

This is bad enough, but consider the effect on a child when Mom or Dad - who chose the sex of their child - become angry at something stupid the child has done, and begin lamenting in the child's hearing that they could have had a boy instead of a girl or vice versa. Chances are that this would only be for dramatic effect (teenage girls are not the only drama queens or kings), but try to convince the child and his or her psychiatrist of that.

Be careful what you ask for - you might get it.

For example, in the musical play "Lil' Abner," written before cartoonist Al Capp had changed his allegiance from an easy liberalism to an uncomfortable conservatism, a group of Washington politicians have discovered that "Yokumberry Tonic" - distilled from berries of a bush that grows only on Mammy and Pappy Yokum's farm in Dogpatch, U.S.A. - has the power to transform the rather decrepit excuses for humanity that inhabit that Appalachian paradise into virtual supermen. The politicians (headed by General "What's-Good-for-Gen eral-Bullmoose-is-Go od-for-the-U.S.A." Bullmoose) bring in their pet scientists. In an ecstasy of delight unparalleled since the Nazi attempts to breed an Aryan master race, the scientists burst into song, and dance about the stage (and later the screen) eulogizing the anticipated results on the men and women of America:

Oh happy day when miracles take place,
And scientists control the human race.
When we assume authority of human chromosomes;
And assembly line women, conveyor belt men,
Settle down in push button homes.

Oh happy day when all the cells conform,
And the exceptional becomes the norm.
When from a test tube we produce gargantuas or gnomes,
And assembly line babies, conveyor belt storks,
Only come to push button homes.

At first the efforts appear successful. The women of Dogpatch, however (who had looked forward to the transformation with eager anticipation), are chagrined (to say the least) when they discover that, yes, Yokumberry Tonic turns men into something straight off Muscle Beach. The tonic also, unfortunately, causes them to lose all interest in the opposite sex, specifically, their wives. Realizing the error of their ways, the ladies implore the scientists to "put 'em back the way they wuz," in understandable, if not entirely grammatical song.

The moral of the story - and may even have been what Capp had in mind - is that (in the words of the old margarine commercial), "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature," or, as the poet Horace said in loosely-translated Latin verse, "You can chase Nature out with a pitchfork, but she always comes back." The problem with making choices of this nature is that there is always regret over what you get.

This does not usually happen when there is no choice. You may be unhappy with what you get, whether it's hot dogs for dinner or a boy instead of a girl, but, hey, that's the luck of the draw. People tend to make the best of whatever they're handed. The effect of, "We wish we'd had a boy/girl instead of you!" is substantially different from, "We could have had a boy/girl instead of you!" The former is a meaningless noise, to which the child can snicker, "Yeah? Well, you didn't!" The latter is a definite threat - what a child tends to hear is that maybe Mom and Dad are thinking of a trade-in.

If the effects on individuals families are bad, consider the fallout for society. China, which has practiced infant sex selection via abortion and abandonment of children of the undesired sex, has a serious problem. There are too many men and not enough women. Even in the west, there has been a tendency (in spite of feminist rhetoric) to choose male children over female children when the opportunity presents itself.

The result of a preponderance of one sex over another - inevitable when people choose the sex of their infants by whatever means - is disruption of both the family and of society as a whole. Just because it is possible to make a choice doesn't mean that a choice should be made. Some things are better left to chance.

Learn more about this author, Michael Greaney.
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