COLUMN: Natural selection or your selection

From Jeff Adler's, "Section 8," Fall '98 From Jeff Adler's, "Section 8," Fall '98Pink or blue? It's a tough decision and one that most of us will not be making for a little while at least. But one day, not too, too far away, some of us will have to choose. That used to be the question anyway. Then came ultrasound, and a few months before Dan or Danielle popped into the world, you could see (or not see) a rather definitive sign indicating the gender of your child. Well, move over ultrasound! There's a new gang in town. Actually, they're not hiding out in the Wistar Institute as you might have suspected (but can somebody tell me what really goes on in there?). In fact, they're holding press conferences in nearby Fairfax, Virginia. And what's all the hubbub about? Now you don't have to wait for the ultrasound to see if Junior is a girl or a boy; you can pick which gender you want beforehand. On September 9 of this year, researchers at the Genetics and IVF Institute in Fairfax announced that they have developed a method of pre-selecting your child's gender that is over 90 percent accurate. The process is pretty straightforward. Remember your Bio 101? If the sperm carries a Y chromosome, you've got a boy; if the sperm carries an X, you've got a girl. It also turns out that sperm carrying the Y chromosome have less DNA overall than those carrying the X chromosome. And so by using a process called micro-sort, they can separate all the sperm in a given, let's say, batch, measure them up, put the X's with the X's and the Y's with the Y's. Now all you have to do is make your choice, and the lucky lady goes off for artificial insemination. Seems pretty easy, doesn't it? But what about that choice? After all, up until now we've left it in the hands of God/natural selection/fate/chance (please pick one or more) and things are pretty balanced. Around the world, it seems that there are enough boys for the girls and vice-versa. Except, of course, at Penn, where neither side seems too thrilled about their choices. This is not to say that the micro-sorting process does not have advantages. Suppose that in your family, there is a history of genetically passed diseases that are gender specific such as breast cancer or ovarian cancer. In such a case, researchers believe that it may be wiser to choose a male over a female. They might even go so far as to say that it is your responsibility to choose a male in such a case. Otherwise, you could risk the health of your future child, not to mention that you could save yourself from the future guilt you would incur if your ill chosen daughter one day found a malicious lump in her breast. But what other kind of "choices" does this new technology allow? Many families now will have the opportunity for what is called "family balancing." Suppose you have a boy and want a girl. Well, now you can do it. Want to make sure that the family name is passed down? No problem. Order up a boy. And maybe, just maybe, if you want to be a full blooded all-American family with 2.5 children, science one day may afford you the opportunity to have only half a child, say from the waist down, and the top half will be sold separately when you have the money available. Family balancing also raises another problem. Since this technology is not 100 percent accurate, you may end up with the wrong gender anyway. Now, I've heard about unwanted children, but this would really be a shock to the system in the delivery room, wouldn't it? Ever here the saying, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth?" Well, amen. Here's one more thing to think about. Get out your hypothetical handbook. Suppose that somebody becomes a very powerful dictator in his or her country. He or she is so powerful in fact that this person has the power to decide the gender of your unborn child and then force you to have it. Sound crazy? Maybe, but today in countries with overpopulation problems where the number of children per family is already limited, females are considered undesirable. With this technology, an undesirable is no longer a problem. It's ruled out long before it has the chance to become a nuisance. And isn't chance what nature is all about anyway? How many times have we heard stories about the father who desperately wants a boy yet ends up with a girl. But then years later, the same father learns that his daughter was a blessing in disguise. I'm sure not all the people that I love would have the same sex organs if this technology had been put into practice 25 years ago. I think it's a fairly good rule not to mess with Mother Nature. If I am ever faced with this dilemma in the future, I can tell you one thing. I don't want to know what I'm going to see in the delivery room. I want it to be a surprise. And as for pink or blue, I'll paint the damn room white and be fine with it.