Choosing a Child's Sex Gender: Pros and Cons - Assignment Example

cent developments, through in vitro fertilization, followed by a pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and embryo biopsy, selection of an embryo’s sex is a reality (Kovacs 1105). Modern medicine has given reliable and safer birth control methods, which allow parents exercise a choice for the number of children they want to have. Now, there is the increased use of ultrasound technology, and most recently pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, and finally parents gain a voice in the sex of the child (Hyde 204-205).

Stiff opposition from governments has met this new development; out of 36 countries with policies governing child selection, 31 prohibit it for non-medical reasons while 5 don’t condone it (Kovacs 1105). This paper will evaluate gender selection outlining the pros and cons associated with it in determining if it should be the parent’s should determine the sex of their unborn children. In most countries and especially in the United Kingdom, parents can determine the sex of the child for health-related reasons (Wilkinson & Garrard 28).

Sex selection is necessary for eradicating diseases that are linked to the child’s gender, including muscular dystrophy and hemophilia. Some diseases that are genetically transmitted and especially those that affect children from a particular gender are avoidable through sex selection. Though girls can carry and transmit hemophilia to their children, they do not suffer from it themselves, and only boys contract this disease. Parents carrying the hemophilia gene with chances of passing it to their children prefer a girl child (Wilkinson & Garrard 29).

In this case, the parents avoid inflicting this debilitating, painful and at times fatal disease on their boy child. The UK government adopted the use of sex selection in situations like this that favor the parents and the child. In some cases, parents possess a high inclination for a particular kid based on different reasons. In India, there has been a great significance