The Ethics of Prenatal Sex Selection

Zhang Zhiquan and his wife, Mei, live in a rural village in the People’s Republic of China. Growing up in rural China, they learned early that couples needed sons to prosper and to care for them in their old age. They also learned that sons were essential for passing on the family name, that wives who produced no sons deserved mockery and abuse, and that girls were so useless that in the past many rural families did not even bother to name them. When Mei became pregnant, therefore, they had to decide what they would do if the baby were female. In the past, if they felt unable or unwilling to raise a daughter, their only options would have been to kill the baby or give her up for adoption—choices that some families still make. Now, however, they have one additional option: having a health care worker identify the fetus’s sex through ultrasound or amniocentesis and perform an abortion if the fetus is female.

Half a world away, the same issues of sex preselection and selective abortion arise, although in a different form:

Sharon and James Black live in Denver, Colorado, with their two young daughters. Because they both believe that children need a parent home at the end of the school day, Sharon works only part time as a secretary, and James works two jobs so they can make ends meet. Sharon has just learned she is pregnant again. Although they had only planned on having two children, James always wanted a son with whom he can share his interests in sports and automobiles. Having another child, however, will further strain their finances and make it difficult for Sharon to return to full-time work for several more years. Consequently, continuing the pregnancy does not seem worthwhile unless they know that the fetus is male.

Is prenatal sex selection ethically justified in these cases? Although the circumstances differ enormously, for both families, the birth of a daughter would bring substantial economic hardship. For both families, too, a daughter would enter life unwanted and already having failed to meet her parents’ expectations. In addition, for the Chinese family and possibly (although to a lesser extent) the American family, the birth of another daughter might lower the wife’s status and strain the marriage. Given these circumstances, wouldn’t it be best for all concerned if the families use the available medical technology to determine their fetuses’ sex and abort them if they are female?

For hundreds of thousands of couples in Asia and a growing number in the West, the answer, resoundingly, is yes. In China, for example, 120 boys are born for every 100