Boy or girl? A simple test raises ethical concerns

[Tank]

Boy or girl? A simple test raises ethical concerns

(AP) -- Boy or girl? A simple blood test in mothers-to-be can answer that question with surprising accuracy at about seven weeks, a research analysis has found.

Though not widely offered by U.S. doctors, gender-detecting blood tests have been sold online to consumers for the past few years. Their promises of early and accurate results prompted genetics researchers to take a closer look.

They analyzed 57 published studies of gender testing done in rigorous research or academic settings - though not necessarily the same methods or conditions used by direct-to-consumer firms.

The authors say the results suggest blood tests like those studied could be a breakthrough for women at risk of having babies with certain diseases, who could avoid invasive procedures if they learned their fetus was a gender not affected by those illnesses. But the study raises concerns about couples using such tests for gender selection and abortion...

This clouds the issue of unrestricted first trimester abortion as it opens the way to gender selection.

[Whitney]

I don't think enough western women would abort just to get a different gender to make it a big issue...and in places where they would abort then it is much more humane than leaving the baby to die or selling it into trade because it's not a male.

But the religious right will take anything and run with it if they think it will help them stop all abortions.

Frankly, with our populations growing exponentially there wouldn't be any harm in gender selection...if it ended up creating too many of one gender over the other it would slow our population growth.  So from there it's just a matter of how someone feels about elective abortion for that purpose.   Personally if I wanted a certain gender that badly I'd adopt.

[DeterminedJuliet]

I always thought that this sort of thing was inevitable. I know with in-vitro fertilization they can sometimes "sway" the likelihood of one gender over another by using a centrifuge, as "male" and "female" sperm have slightly different weights (I don't know how often this is actually done, but I've heard that it is possible).

Personally, I don't think I'd ever be able to have an abortion if I didn't get the "right" gender, but 7 weeks is still very, very early in a pregnancy. I think it's better that people who would consider doing this are able to find out at that stage than say 10+ weeks.