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J Med Ethics 2001;27:302-307 doi:10.1136/jme.27.5.302

Why sex selection should be legal

  1. David McCarthy
  1. University of Bristol

      Abstract

      Reliable medically assisted sex selection which does not involve abortion or infanticide has recently become available, and has been used for non-medical reasons. This raises questions about the morality of sex selection for non-medical reasons. But reasonable people continue to disagree about the answers to these questions. So another set of questions is about what the law should be on medically assisted sex selection for non-medical reasons in the face of reasonable disagreement about the morality of sex selection. This paper sketches a way of thinking about what the law should be, and concludes, contrary to what the law is in many places, that medically assisted sex selection for non-medical reasons ought to be legal.

      Footnotes

      • David McCarthy, PhD, is Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol.

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