Toward preselected sex
Robert Edwards and Richard Gardner of Cambridge University … say they
have been able to remove rabbit embryos … then reimplant only the
blastocysts destined to develop into the chosen sex. The implications
are obvious and enormous. If this procedure could be extended easily to
man there might, for instance, be imbalances, even fads, in the
selection by parents of one sex of child over another. — Science News,
August 3, 1968.
Update
Edwards helped pioneer in vitro fertilization, resulting in the first
IVF baby in 1978 and a Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2010. He
also foresaw technology’s potential for sex selection. With no sex
selection, about 105 males are born for every 100 females worldwide. But
in places where sex selection has been encouraged, through IVF and
other methods, changes have resulted. In 1995, China’s ratio was 115
boys per 100 girls, according to U.N. estimates. By 2015, men
outnumbered women in China by more than 42 million. In 2017, China ended
its one-child policy.
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/31655
Comments
Post a Comment