Choosing your child's sex?

[Randy]

Should parents be allowed to choose the sex of their unborn baby?

Why or why not?

 

[PGen98]

Eh...this is going to get controversial, so I'll simply say -- no. Parents don't know their child's gender, only their child knows their gender. It took me 34 years to find the courage to be myself, if I'd had the courage I could have been me much sooner, but my parents have no idea who the real me is. They don't know, they never will.

 

[Gizmo]

Eh...this is going to get controversial, so I'll simply say -- no. Parents don't know their child's gender, only their child knows their gender. It took me 34 years to find the courage to be myself, if I'd had the courage I could have been me much sooner, but my parents have no idea who the real me is. They don't know, they never will.

But you can't expect a baby to say what their gender is.

 

[PGen98]

But you can't expect a baby to say what their gender is.

No, but a baby is born a certain sex. If the baby was intended to be male, is born female because of the parents' designer choices, and ends up being a trans male later in life, that's years of struggle, years of mental torture because they were selfish and wanted to design their baby. Likewise, as a trans woman, I know the hell that comes with being born male while being female brained. It's awful. If my parents had picked for me to be male, and I found out about it, I'd be livid. Years of hell because of them. But they didn't, my hell is my own, but at least I it wasn't imposed on me by my parents. I would feel extreme resentment towards them if they had chosen this for me.

 

[emily]

Should parents be allowed to choose the gender of their unborn baby?

but how would that work

picture it: a pregnant woman comes in to the hospital for a scan. the nurses or what ever do it and say oh, your baby is female and the woman goes what?. I wanted a little boy

what next?

surely it's too late to really change the gender because it's all ready growing inside of her. I'm just being realistic. if she wanted to have a boy, she'd have to try again later on down the line.

 

[Jane]

They can by the doc selecting the fertilised eggs I suppose. For example..a couple have a child with some disabling condition. They want to ensure their next child doesn't have it… in that case perfectly fine. why not? No ones business

 

[Dee]

First of all, gender DOES NOT EQUAL SEX ASSIGNED AT BIRTH. Let's just get that straight right off the bat. Secondly, gender is a social construct created by weak-minded and misogynistic human beings to label and impose upon perceived roles and behaviors (e.g. a man should be the bread winner, stoic, and a disciplinarian and a woman should be the baby oven, stay home, and raise the kids). Knowing these things, I think a parent should raise their child to be whatever the child is comfortable with. If they want to dress their female baby in pink frilly dresses, fine. But if the child, as they grow, expresses an interest in more "boyish" things, then that should be explored as well. Same with male babies. If they want to dress the male baby up in cute little jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers (specifically the color blue), then so be it. But if the boy baby grows up and expresses interest in more "feminine" things, then so be it. Explore that. There are also intersex individuals, which is not very different a conversation, but apparently is too difficult for some people to comprehend, so I won't get into that.

The fact that people misinterpret what gender and sex are is one of the biggest issues in this whole debate.

You should know what you're talking about when it comes to biological sex vs. socially constructed gender roles.

 

[PGen98]

First of all, gender DOES NOT EQUAL SEX ASSIGNED AT BIRTH. Let's just get that straight right off the bat. Secondly, gender is a social construct created by weak-minded and misogynistic human beings to label and impose upon perceived roles and behaviors (e.g. a man should be the bread winner, stoic, and a disciplinarian and a woman should be the baby oven, stay home, and raise the kids). Knowing these things, I think a parent should raise their child to be whatever the child is comfortable with. If they want to dress their female baby in pink frilly dresses, fine. But if the child, as they grow, expresses an interest in more "boyish" things, then that should be explored as well. Same with male babies. If they want to dress the male baby up in cute little jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers (specifically the color blue), then so be it. But if the boy baby grows up and expresses interest in more "feminine" things, then so be it. Explore that. There are also intersex individuals, which is not very different a conversation, but apparently is too difficult for some people to comprehend, so I won't get into that.

The fact that people misinterpret what gender and sex are is one of the biggest issues in this whole debate.

You should know what you're talking about when it comes to biological sex vs. socially constructed gender roles.

So very well put!

 

[Nebulous]

First of all, gender DOES NOT EQUAL SEX ASSIGNED AT BIRTH. Let's just get that straight right off the bat. Secondly, gender is a social construct created by weak-minded and misogynistic human beings to label and impose upon perceived roles and behaviors (e.g. a man should be the bread winner, stoic, and a disciplinarian and a woman should be the baby oven, stay home, and raise the kids). Knowing these things, I think a parent should raise their child to be whatever the child is comfortable with. If they want to dress their female baby in pink frilly dresses, fine. But if the child, as they grow, expresses an interest in more "boyish" things, then that should be explored as well. Same with male babies. If they want to dress the male baby up in cute little jeans, a t-shirt, and sneakers (specifically the color blue), then so be it. But if the boy baby grows up and expresses interest in more "feminine" things, then so be it. Explore that. There are also intersex individuals, which is not very different a conversation, but apparently is too difficult for some people to comprehend, so I won't get into that.

The fact that people misinterpret what gender and sex are is one of the biggest issues in this whole debate.

You should know what you're talking about when it comes to biological sex vs. socially constructed gender roles.

Good point. I've edited the original post in this thread to say "sex" instead of gender.

Should parents be allowed to choose the sex of their unborn baby?

Why or why not?

No they shouldn't. I think it would really mess with a persons head to find out later in life that they could have been born a different sex but their parents changed it. I know it would mess me up.

 

[Ravenfreak]

This reminds me of what doctors usually do with intersex babies. Most of the time, they let the parents choose what sex their child is. I don't get how people can be so against trans people and think it's "genital mutilation" but agree with doctors performing circumcisions and surgery on intersex babies. I understand if it's a dire need for medical purposes to perform an operation on a intersex child, but if they are otherwise healthy then I think once they become old enough they can make the decision for themselves.

 

[PGen98]

This reminds me of what doctors usually do with intersex babies. Most of the time, they let the parents choose what sex their child is. I don't get how people can be so against trans people and think it's "genital mutilation" but agree with doctors performing circumcisions and surgery on intersex babies. I understand if it's a dire need for medical purposes to perform an operation on a intersex child, but if they are otherwise healthy then I think once they become old enough they can make the decision for themselves.

This! One million percent this! Trans kids are mutilated, coerced, bomb the drag shows! Oh, this kid's intersex, better decide their gender for them. Aww, how sweet, you fixed them!