A Quandary That Isn't

Picking a baby's sex won't lead to disaster

Novel approaches to babymaking seem to be coming at us so fast that we hardly have time to digest one before the next one hits--test-tube babies, egg donation, surrogacy, cloning and now sex selection. And just as with earlier methods, the new sperm-separation technique announced last week has triggered plenty of ethical concern. Only a few critics have argued that tampering with nature to avoid a sex-linked genetic disease should be taboo. But plenty have expressed misgivings about using the new technology more casually, to balance families, or simply because parents prefer boys or girls. Such choices, critics say, could lead...

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