ASLI Working Paper Series

Publication Title The Practice of Sex Selection In Asian Region
Publisher Asian Law Institute
Series WPS034
Publication Date May 2014
Author/Speaker Pimpatsorn Natipodhi
The practice of sex selection has been increasingly popular and arguably in demand amongst modern day parents across the world, particularly in the Asian region, namely in China and India. While there is an argument of parent autonomy and their rights to choose and have the option to control and design their family structure, in other words, to have how many boys or girls, the topic of 'designer babies' is still considered highly contentious as well as controversial. The term initially originated from a setting in which advanced reproductive technology nowadays allow parents and doctors to 'play god'- screening embryos for genetic disorders in order to select the best viable healthy embryos.

Such practice, at first glance, seems to be justifiable as many view that the technology enables parents to avoid having severely disabled children and other serious genetic disorders or diseases to pass on to their new born babies. Yet, with the slippery slope and a fine line drawn between what is justifiable and perhaps an acceptable practice to perform and what is a definite strong 'NO', people have become increasingly misguided and ill-steered into a rather dark and mischievous corner of the practice of sex selection.
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