ABSTRACT
To propose sex selection for population control is to be racist and classist as well as sexist. When a mother carries the gene for a debilitating sex-linked disease, a sex-choice technology could prevent the production of children of the sex at risk, usually male; these children would be spared a life of suffering. The real heart of the problem is that sex choice technologies would nurture patriarchy. Sex selection can be touted as a ‘choice’ for women. However, so many of the choices that women face remain within the patriarchal framework. It is hard to choose out of that framework, and hard to raise a son or a daughter less stereotypically. There may be short-term benefits in a desired family configuration, but the long-term consequences are grim if patriarchal thinking is reinforced at the moment of conceiving a new human being.
