the equal chance to be born, no matter what sex you are
But in that case, there's already an imbalance - it's, what, 1.1 boys for every girl? Something like that. And it's probably because sperm are different weights, so there's an inbuilt advantage for boy-sperm. Small, but it's there. Should we be correcting that and trying for a 50/50 birth rate?
The usual effect of selecting the sex of your child is that people chose sons
On an intellectual level, I'd be absolutely fascinated to find out whether this is still true in this country, what with the regular articles about how boys are failing and girls are succeeding. It probably is, I guess, but I'd bet it's not as extreme as it would be in, say, China.
Should parents be allowed to discriminate in that way with their potential offsping?
No, but I think the solution, as elsewhere, would be to challenge their attitudes, not to remove the option of choice.
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chiming
Re: Hmmm, I hadn't given it any serious thought
Date: November 14th, 2003 09:47 am (UTC)From:But in that case, there's already an imbalance - it's, what, 1.1 boys for every girl? Something like that. And it's probably because sperm are different weights, so there's an inbuilt advantage for boy-sperm. Small, but it's there. Should we be correcting that and trying for a 50/50 birth rate?
The usual effect of selecting the sex of your child is that people chose sons
On an intellectual level, I'd be absolutely fascinated to find out whether this is still true in this country, what with the regular articles about how boys are failing and girls are succeeding. It probably is, I guess, but I'd bet it's not as extreme as it would be in, say, China.
Should parents be allowed to discriminate in that way with their potential offsping?
No, but I think the solution, as elsewhere, would be to challenge their attitudes, not to remove the option of choice.