shocked
I am absolutely shocked to see ban on sex selective fertilisation is recommened by the Bioethics Council, a ministerial advisory committee to be loosen.
Whether this happens in mother's womb, or in vitro fertilisation, the practice is highly unethical, and very wrong to allow people playing god, unless it is necessary treat a genetic disorder or disease.
What fundamentally wrong about this, is that all the reasoning for this recommendation is based on the assumption that a child is the property of his/her parents so parents have the right to choose between a boy or girl, just as the freedom of choice people exercised in clothing colours when they are shopping around.
It doesn't take a moment to realise that this is very wrong.
If every one wants to exercise the freedom of choice, then the unborn babies are also human being, they also should have the right to choose whether he/she wants to be born as the child of such parents, or choose not to be born.
But babies cannot speak. So at end of the day it's the group who cannot stand for themselves suffer.
Apart from ethical issues, this will also create gender imbalance in our population.
One of the reasoning the bioethical council used to justify this selective fertilisation is that parents who had three boys or girls should have the right to have a opposite sex baby.
I have serious question on those councillors' professionalism in this field. Yes that is the fact, but the larger fact is that if I got three boys, it is very likely that a family somewhere else in New Zealand also got three girls, thus maintaining an overall natural balance.
If every one who got three boys or girls go for sex selective fertilisation, the gender balance would not become a problem. But the problem is, not everyone will act in this selfish way.
This issue has to be consulted properly, not just a report or 700 people's opinion. Any rush on rule changes will cost us our country's future.
Sex selective fertilisation should only be allowed if it is for the well-being of the child, not parents.
Well said.
I'm a little annoyed that I have to mark exams right now and therefore don't have time to sit down and read the Bioethics Councils report, but I fully intend to do that as soon as exams are out of the way. I'm hoping, for the Council's sake, that the report contains better reasoning than was presented in that Herald article, though I doubt it. I did notice, though, that a bioethicist at Otago University came out against the Council.