Sex selection and the 'yuck factor'
As the debate in Britian continues about sex selection for family balancing, one editorialist opines that there's really no reason not to allow parents to choose the gender of their baby.
As for the idea that choosing your child’s sex is somehow immoral, why do the same critics not inveigh against these more homespun techniques [the squirt of lemon or the high-sodium diet or the immaculate timing]? The intention behind them is exactly the same, after all, whether you are dosing yourself with salty food or sending his sperm to a lab.
We are in danger of letting the “yuck factor” determine our legislation. Thirty years ago, the yuck factor nearly put paid to IVF, which was then known — a little yuckily — as “test-tube babies”. Now IVF is commonplace and few people find it disturbing.