Article:
Test tube perfection, Herald Sun, Australia
Quotes from the maladroit Father Bill Uren, rector of the Jesuit Theological College:
He denounced parents who "just want to create children after their own image".
What, exactly, kind of children should I want, then? I pretty
much thought children in our "own image" was the natural course of
events.
"What right have we as beneficiaries of the birth lottery to rig it for the next generation?" he said.
Many people feel it's not a right, but a responsibility to try to give a better life to the next generation.
"We are commodifying children -- making them into a supermarket product you can just pick off the shelves."
Ha, ha, Father Bill. That commodity line always cracks me
up. Having a baby, in case you haven't noticed, involves being
pregnant for an extended period of time and a fairly exigent birth
process -- not to mention adding the expensive and harrowing experience
of IVF into the mix, if that is needed. I don't know where you do
your grocery shopping, but the last time I checked, grabbing an item
off the supermarket shelf wasn't all that taxing.
He warned that any sex selection would disadvantage females as parents would choose a male as their first child and heir.
If
Father B had a) looked at any research on gender preference, and b)
looked at preferences for Australia, he would have found a good deal of
evidence that non-Asian countries show a strong desire for children of
both genders; and that among those seeking to use sex selection, more
are hoping to have a girl than a boy.
About Maureen
Click to play the Fountains of Wayne song about Maureen!
"Maureen, you're givin' me too much information!"
My Kiddies
My DH
(And never had a fight!)
About Me
In 1999, my two sons were 4 and 2 years old, and we were ready to have another baby. I hoped to have a daughter, and I turned to the Internet to search for ways of increasing the odds of conceiving a girl. I discovered the iVillage Gender Determination Board. On the board, I found information about at-home and high-tech sex selection methods, but more importantly, I discovered I wasn't alone. I was one among a legion of mothers who longed desperately for a daughter, keeping it a secret so others wouldn't think, wrongly, that we loved our sons less, and feeling guilty becuse we're not supposed to care if a baby's a boy or a girl, "as long as it's healthy". There were, of course, also mothers hoping just as much to add a son to their all-girl family.
After a lot of research and soul-searching, my husband I decided to try MicroSort. In the fall of 2000, I became pregnant on our first MicroSort attempt, by IUI. At 20 weeks of pregnancy, we discovered we were having twins, a boy and a girl! We were thrilled to have a daughter at last, and a new son to cherish too.
During my journey to conceive a daughter, I was so grateful for the support and information volunteered by others on the boards; mothers who didn't even know me, but were willing to help me, hope for me, and cry along with me, when there was no one I could turn to "in real life". I know that without being able to talk personally with women who had tried MicroSort, I would have never gone through with this daunting, complex procedure; and that we would have never had a daughter as part of our family.
Now that my journey's finished, this Web site is just my way of giving some of that help back, to you.