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you have at least one of each gender and then cannot afford to give them a reasonable chance to succeed because your time and money are stretched too thin amongst your many offspring.

Unwanted children of either gender can sometimes be abused, as well. It has been documented in China, famous for its one child per family rule, that boys are more desired, and as such baby girls are sometimes aborted or, more rarely, killed after birth to give the parents another shot at the revered male child. China is not the only society in which these atrocities have occurred, but it is only fair to say that these actions are not the norm. It is much more common for an unwanted child to be simply ignored, abused or otherwise treated as inferior. I personally knew a man who was the only boy in a family with 5 children. His parents had only wanted a single, male child. Instead, they ended up with a large, female-dominated family. While they were never abusive to the girls, they were never given the same advantages as their brother. His college fund was full and he could go to any school he was accepted to. The girls were expected to pay their own way. The girls were sent to the local public school, while he went to an expensive parochial school specializing in college preparation. He was given an allowance and encouraged to study instead of work, while the girls all needed part-time jobs in high school. His parents bought him his first car even though his sisters had to pay for their own vehicles. The favoritism goes on to this day. Are his sisters loved? Of course they are. Their parents don't abuse or neglect them. But I would definitely say that their parents should have simply gender selected for their son right away so that they would not have brought four daughters into the world that they have clearly given inferiority complexes to. One daughter has been in and out of jail and has to deal with drug problems. Another has been through 4 bad marriages. Two of them had children at 18, and those same girls have multiple children, each with a different father. Our society does not need more people with these issues just because their parents didn't really want them.

The argument that allowing everyone to select for either gender they choose would unbalance the sexes, is flawed. It is a fact that the majority of parents gender selecting for a non-medical reason, are trying to have a child of a different gender than the one they already have at home. Most of these parents have a boy and want a little sister for him. And, all these years after this practice became available to the public, our birth rates are still 50% male and 50% female.

No child should ever feel unwanted. Anything we can ethically do to prevent this is beneficial. For those of you who believe that gender selection is "against god's plan," I offer this food for thought: This procedure is not 100% foolproof. People have selected for a boy and ended up with a girl, and vice-versa. What is meant to be, will be, regardless of our current scientific advances.

Learn more about this author, Sarah Grau.
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