A Brave New World

[Ludwig]

Good news folks! It’s soon going to be a better world. The London Daily Telegraph reported that very soon doctors may be able to screen unborn babies for 3,500 different genetic disorders. All it takes is a blood test from the mother, and a cheek-swab from the father.

Won’t you be more comfortable knowing that your baby will not suffer from asthma that might keep you awake at night? Don’t you really prefer a son who will keep his hair, rather than one who will be balding in his teens? And nobody wants a color-blind child… Heck, this is just great! Soon a lot of guys like me will never be born.

[mac]

oh yeow....you'll still be born....the question is will you be born dead or alive?.....mac


Good news folks! It’s soon going to be a better world. The London Daily Telegraph reported that very soon doctors may be able to screen unborn babies for 3,500 different genetic disorders. All it takes is a blood test from the mother, and a cheek-swab from the father.

Won’t you be more comfortable knowing that your baby will not suffer from asthma that might keep you awake at night? Don’t you really prefer a son who will keep his hair, rather than one who will be balding in his teens? And nobody wants a color-blind child… Heck, this is just great! Soon a lot of guys like me will never be born.

[FieryPrincess]

I didn't even want to know the baby's gender prior to birth.

It just seemed too much like peaking at a gift from God. It isn't cool to sneak a peak at the presents under the tree before the day you are supposed get the gift!

(Also not a fan of inducement. God should get to pick the birthday too.)

[Scarlett]

Guess this is one of those things everyone has their own opinion on!
I peeked and induced. ;)

[sojourner truth]

Didn't have the option with our daughter. Just like the old days...you have 2 lists of names for boys and girls..Don't know whether to buy pink or blue. But, I got the girl I wanted. 10 fingers and 10 toes...Good enough for us. Oh, and we didn't need to peek...My momma knew it was a girl just by how my wife was carrying the baby.

[skindog]

My children were tested for Down's Syndrome (ran in ex's family), and we knew the sex. I never really thought about the "Big Brother" aspect of it all until after-the-fact.

The sex didn't really matter to me, I just wanted a healthy baby. I can't say I wasn't happy to have a son to carry on the family name, but there's no reason why my daughter couldn't do the same with her children. I guess it's the old-fashioned part of me that was happy to have a son to do it.

The movie "Gattaca" was a good example of what this story is saying. The "sex scene" from "Demolition Man" made me stop and think. To be honest, the whole idea of this is freaky. Why can't we let evolution do it's thing, becuase I'm sure we'll just muck it up when we tinker with it. We're taller, faster, live longer (mostly thanks to modern technology and medicine), more intelligent (debatable, but for the most part), but what has all of this done for the better? I suppose cave men never imagined they'd someday be able to fly to the moon, and dinosaurs thought they would be here forever, so who's to say this isn't just another step in our evolution? Imagine a million years from now when homo sapiens are no longer, and we're looked at in the future as just another step in the evolutionary ladder. I'm sure "Ugh" and "Baam" thought they were the sh*t in their heyday too...

[liessemsed]

What ever happened to "you get what you get, and you don't throw a fit." :)

Although I admit that I peeked with both of mine, and I would have been happy no matter what the sex of the baby. Admittedly I'm glad that my 2nd was a boy, because my two are 12 months apart, and the idea of having two girls so close in age in the house when they're in puberty just terrified me. PMS and drama running rampant! I'm just one of those where my philosophy is that it doesn't hurt to know the sex, and then I could start calling her/him by their names instead of referring to them as "jelly bean" and "fat baby".

[xzochye]

To me it doesn't matter if you find out the sex of a baby at 20 weeks or at 40 weeks. It's still a surprise when you find out and it's still a gift.