The myth of the gendered chromosome: Sex selection and the social interest

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

Volumn 16, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 7-19

  Seavilleklein, Victoria ^a   Sherwin, Susan ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADVERTIZING; ETHICS; FEMALE; FERTILIZATION IN VITRO; GENETIC ENGINEERING; HUMAN; LEGAL ASPECT; MALE; METHODOLOGY; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; REVIEW; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; STATISTICS;

ADVERTISING AS TOPIC; FEMALE; FERTILIZATION IN VITRO; HUMANS; MALE; SEX PRESELECTION; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR; SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION;

EID: 33947397619     PISSN: 09631801     EISSN: 14692147     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0963180107070028     Document Type: Review

References (37)

1. Infanticide is also a form of sex selection that is practiced throughout the world in areas where ultrasounds to determine fetal sex are not accessible.
2. We have some reservations about the exception made for sex-linked disease because we do not share the common view that prenatal testing and selective abortion on the basis of disease or disability is unproblematic, but we will not enter into that debate here.
3. Robertson JA. Children of Choice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press; 1994.
4. See, for example, Wertz DC, Fletcher JC. Sex selection through prenatal diagnosis: A feminist critique. In: Bequaert Holmes H, Purdy LM, eds. Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press; 1992.
5. Results from surveys show that 25%-35% of parents or prospective parents in the United States would choose to use sex selection services if they were available. Microsort alone, a technology involving the separation of sperm using a modified flow cytometer, is predicted to have a market in the United States of $200 to $400 million per year; Wadman M. So you want a girl? Fortune; 2001;143(19 Feb):174-79.
6. See Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies, Proceed with Care: Final Report of the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies, chap. 28. Ottawa: Canada Communications Group; 1993.
7. See Robertson JA. Preconception gender selection. American Journal of Bioethics 2001;1(1):2-9.
8. This figure is for women in Canada aged 15-49 in 2002, according to Statistics Canada. Canada's fertility rate falls in the middle of the rates of other nations around the world, with Italy, Japan, and Germany having slightly lower fertility rates and the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and France having slightly higher rates.
9. Fertility Evaluation and Procedures: Scientific Understanding. Los Angeles: The Fertility Institutes. Available at http://www.fertility-docs.com/ fertility_gender.phtml; last accessed 3 Oct 2006.
10. Sidney IVF. How is sex selection done at SIVF? Sidney, Australia: SIVF. During the publication process, the page was removed from SIVF's website as a result of new Australian ethical guidelines recommending against sex selection services being performed for nonmedical reasons. While publicly disagreeing with the moral reasons given in the guidelines, SIVF has halted its sex selection services. The original webpage can still be viewed at http:// web.archive.org/web/20041015073938/http://www.sivf.com.au/ss_how.htm; last accessed 3 Oct 2006.
11. Bolin A. Transforming transvestism and transsexualism: Polarity, politics, and gender. In: Bullough B, Bullough VL, Elias J, eds. Gender Blending. New York: Prometheus Books; 1997:26.
12. McKinnon C. Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press; 1987:50.
13. In other societies, there is acceptance of a third gender, such as the guevedoche in the Dominican Republic, the hijra in India, and the kwolu-aatmwal in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Nataf Z. Whatever I feel [pseudo-hermaphroditism]. New Internationalist 1998;300(April):22- 25.
14. Weiss M. Fence sitters: Parents' reactions to sexual ambiguities in their newborn children. Semiotica 1995;107:33-50.
15. Bullough V, Bullough B. Cross-Dressing, Sex, and Gender. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press; 1993:vii.
16. King D. The Transvestite and the Transsexual. Avebury, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.; 1993, esp. chapter 2.
17. Some studies posit that the number of male to female transsexuals is about 1 in 100,000 and of female to male transsexuals is about 1 in 130,000; Eichler M. Sex change operations: The last bulwark of the double standard. In: Nelson ED, Robinson BW, eds. Gender in the 1990s: Images, Realities, and Issues. Nelson, Canada: International Thomson Publishing; 1995:30. Bullough and Bullough, however, estimate that the incidence of transsexuality is approximately 1:50,000 in both men and women;
18. see note 14, Bullough, Bullough 1993:314.
19. Wilson B, Reiner W. Management of intersex: A shifting paradigm. In: Dreger AD, ed. Intersex in the Age of Ethics. Hagerstown, Md.: University Publishing Group, Inc.; 1999:121.
20. Milton Diamond argues, for example, that sexual orientation is partially predisposed prenatally and develops independently of sex of rearing and the appearance of the genitals; see Diamond M. Sexual identity and sexual orientation in children with traumatized or ambiguous genitalia. The Journal of Sex Research 1997;34(2):199-211.
21. See note 14, Bullough, Bullough 1993:294.
22. Pauly I. Gender identity and sexual orientation. In: Denny D, ed. Current Concepts in Transgender Identity. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.; 1998:237-48.
23. Blackless M, Charuvastra A, Fausto-Sterling A, Luzanne K, Lee E. How sexually dimorphic are we? Review and synthesis. American Journal of Human Biology 2000;12:161.
24. See note 17, Wilson, Reiner 1999:123.
25. For a comprehensive survey of all the variations from the dichotomous ideal of male and female, see note 21, Blackless et al. 2000.
26. They might also have an X0 karyotype, where "0" marks the absence of the second chromosome; see note 17, Wilson, Reiner 1999:120.
27. The motivation for this requirement seems to be that the transsexual must "truly" fit the gender role of the opposite sex, namely being attracted to members of the opposite sex (postsurgery) in a heterosexual relationship. If an individual is homosexual, there would be no need to undergo the surgery because they can engage in sexual activity without it.
28. See note 15, King 1993:51-8.
29. See, for example, the autobiographical accounts in Dreger AD, ed. Intersex in the Age of Ethics. Hagerstown, MD: University Publishing Group, 1999;
30. and in Carlisle D. Human Sex Change and Sex Reversal. New York: Edwin Mellen Press; 1998. Visit also the web site of the Intersex Society of North America at http://www.isna.org and the web site of the United Kingdom Intersex Association at http://www.ukia.co.uk/voices/index.htm.
31. See, for example, Frye M. The necessity of differences: Constructing a positive category of women. Signs 1996;21(4):991-1010;
32. Bartky SL. Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression. New York: Routledge; 1990;
33. Butler J. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge; 1990.
34. In Nazi Germany, for example, homosexuals were the second largest group targeted after the Jews, and it is estimated that more than 220,000 were killed; see McNeill JJ. The Church and the Homosexual. Kansas City: Sheed Andrews and McMeel Inc.; 1976:82.
35. A cross-cultural, long-term study by Meira Weiss shows that parents of newborns are much more likely to reject a baby with external defects than internal ones. Because of the importance of sex in categorizing a child, ambiguity of sexual genitalia is particularly traumatic; see note 13, Weiss 1995:37.
36. Many feminists argue, for example, that heterosexism, perpetuated by ideals of the traditional family, has been associated historically with spousal violence, child abuse, rape, inequality of domestic chores, and the perpetuation of male dominance. The effects on women as a result of this patriarchal structure include the physical and emotional separation of women from other women, exploited labor in the home and in childbearing, forced sexual submission, and the exclusion from cultural and professional pursuits. Gender roles based on this model, therefore, may not be worth perpetuating. See Seaville V. Catholicism and the Moral Status of Homosexuality. Master's thesis. Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary; 2002:99.
37. For example, the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada has taken this stance.