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Home > Augmentation > The Potential Societal Disaster in Parents Determining the Sex of Their Children

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Home›Augmentation›The Potential Societal Disaster in Parents Determining the Sex of Their Children

The Potential Societal Disaster in Parents Determining the Sex of Their Children

By M. Christian
March 5, 2020
2437
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Researchers sound the alarm against sex-selection technology.

Potential Societal Disaster

Japanese researcher Masayuki Shimada has been working on developing a process to give farmers and ranchers a way to pre-select the biological sex of their animals. 

So far his Hiroshima University-based team has had success with beef cattle, where male offspring are in much greater demand than females, though less so with pigs—his other target for the process.

This in and of itself might not be particularly disturbing, but a growing number of other scientists are warning that this same technique, if left unchecked, could also allow human parents to too-easily select the biological sex of their children.

This could eventually lead to a dramatically skewed sex imbalance and maybe even widespread cultural and societal devastation. 

How the process works

How Sperm Works

What makes Shimada’s technique so problematic lies in its simplicity. Rather than using something like genetic engineering, where we might be decades away from development to a point where it can be casually used, Shimada instead based his work on the basic, almost mechanical way sperm works.

In a nutshell, Shimada has discovered that sperm carrying the X chromosome results in the offspring being a biological female, while those with the Y chromosome become biological males.

With this information, he subsequently developed a way to slow down the speed at which X chromosome-carrying sperm travel, allowing the male-resulting Y chromosome ones to reach and fertilize the egg first.

Far too easy

IVF

What’s troubling about this is that Shimada’s work could, in just a few years, lead to a way for parents to weed out X chromosome sperm and so seriously increase the likelihood of their child being born biologically male.

This kind of thing is hardly new, as a method to select the biological sex of an embryo already exists, through in vitro fertilization (IVF). The problem with the process of genetically analyzing an IVF embryo before it’s implanted is that it’s far from affordable for most parents.

But not so with a chemical that could be applied as a cream or gel to the vagina before intercourse. The affordability and ease-of-use tremendously magnify the risks that this process would be abused.

Males preferred over females

Males preferred over females

The concern was clearly voiced by Alireza Fazeli who, speaking to New Scientist, said, “I am concerned about the social impact of this. It’s so simple. You could start to do it in your bedroom. Nobody would be able to stop you from doing it.”

This Tartu University (Estonia) researcher’s opinion is not isolated. Others agree, such as bioethicist Wybo Dondorp from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who added this statement to New Scientist’s coverage of the issue: 

In countries where there is already a skewed sex ratio, it is clear that if there are more easy, cheap, accessible technologies they will be used.

This concern draws attention to a yet more profoundly disturbing element if this process should become commercially available: in many countries there remains a deeply skewed perceived value of male offspring over female. 

It doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to envision and shudder at the prospect that in these societies entire generations of predominantly biological males would be born. 

The subsequent shortage of biological females might even lead women to become little more than highly sought-after property sold to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, those who couldn’t afford to buy might resort to importing women from other countries or moving to places where this sex imbalance doesn’t exist, putting a massive strain on not just their native land but these other regions as well. 

Worst still, this imbalance might very well lead to an increase in the already too-prevalent practice of human trafficking, with biological females being kidnapped, tortured, and enslaved for people to profit off the situation.

To top it all off, there’s also the possibility of the pendulum eventually swinging the opposite way: parents, who have clearly observed that sons are now a dime-a-dozen and daughters have become priceless, might then select the latter over the former, leading to another wave of sexual imbalance—and yet more troubling societal damage.

Time to act

Time to act

If there’s good news, it’s that some countries have already seen the potential problems and have made sex-selection illegal outside of medical necessity. While these laws have been focused on other techniques, and not any process based on Shimada’s work, it’s still somewhat reassuring.

Not to taint this moment of optimism, but it’s worth mentioning that only countries such as Canada, India, the United Kingdom, and Australia have these laws, while many others—notably the United States—don’t. 

While we at Future of Sex do try to be as positive as possible about the impact of technology on human sexuality, the possibility that we may have an easy, cheap, and effective way of determining the biological sex of our offspring is seriously alarming. 

While we all should be vigilant and vocal, the serious conversation, with many speaking out in favor of restrictions and even outright banning the technology, shows that there’s still a good chance we can avoid, or at least diminish, hugely detrimental outcomes.

As the old saying goes, we should let nature take its course, and we must accept that biologically male or biologically female, every child is a priceless human being. 

Image sources: Jason Pratt, Zappys Technology Solutions, Torsten Mangner, Sam Howzit, Sean P. Anderson

M. Christian

M.Christian (they/them) loves nothing better than exploring the intersections of sex and technology—and speculating on the future of both. A highly regarded erotica writer they have six novels,12 collections, 100+ short stories, and 25 anthologies as an editor to their name. Their non-fiction regularly appears in many sites, but they're most proud of being a regular contributor to Future of Sex.

Of their erotic fiction, Tristan Taormino said that “M.Christian is a literary stylist of the highest caliber: smart, funny, frightening, sexy—there's nothing [they] can't write about… and brilliantly.”

Reflecting their unique ability to sympathetically and convincingly write for a range of genders and sexual orientations, their stories have appeared in multiple editions of Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, The Mammoth Books of Erotica, and others. Their collection of gay erotic fiction, Dirty Words, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award.

While a majority of their stories have been collected into books like Dirty Words, their fondness for combining sex and science fiction is clearly evident in collections that include Rude Mechanicals, Technorotica, Better Than The Real Thing, Skin Effect Effect, Bachelor Machine, and Hard Drive: The Best Sci-Fi Erotica of M.Christian.

As a novelist, M.Christian’s versatility is on full display with Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Brushes, Painted Doll; and the somewhat controversial queer BDSM/horror/thrillers Finger's Breadth, and Me2.

M.Christian has worked on the industry’s production side as an Associate Publisher for Renaissance E Books and as a Publisher for Digital Parchment Services. The latter dedicated to celebrating the works of science-fiction legends such as William Rotsler, Jerome Bixby, Jody Scott, Arthur Byron Cover, Ernest Hogan, and James Van Hise.

Covering topics like BDSM safety, sexual education, senior sexuality concerns, queer and gender issues, plus reviewing a variety of sex tech products, M.Christian’s non-fiction has appeared on sites like Kinkly, Tickle.Life, Sexpert, Queer Majority, Sex for Every Body, and—of course—their ongoing work for Future of Sex.

If there’s anything M.Christian enjoys more than writing, it’s teaching. A featured presenter, sometimes with their friend Ralph Greco Jr, at national sex and BDSM events, they have lectured on kink play (with an emphasis on safety), polyamory, boosting sexual creativity, and erotica writing--for beginners or those wanting to go pro.

M.Christian is a cohost on two popular sex-education podcasts: Love’s Outer Limits with Dr. Amy Marsh and Licking Non-Vanilla with Ralph Greco, Jr.
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