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Can sex selection be ethically tolerated?
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  • Published on:
    Author's reply to Michael Andreae

    Dear Editor

    It may be most convenient to respond to Dr Andreae’s points[1] in turn:

    1. Unless the claim that a child should determine its own genetic characteristics before it is conceived or born is intended to be flippant, it is logically incoherent. Conception is a decision that only a prospective parent can make. The editorial argument is that denial of choice of sex contributes to preventable maternal...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.
  • Published on:
    Deeply worried about your guest editorial

    Dear Editor

    I am deeply worried about the guest editorial by Dickens.[1] Please see my comments below

    • Trying to dispel some of the counter arguments to sex selection, your argument of prospective parents’ autonomy is void. If anyone has a right to determine his or her sex, it would be the person concerned, in this case the unborn child. Surely, the parents will not have surrogate decision making pow...
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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.
  • Published on:
    Gender balance and sex equality: Author's response to the letter by Frances H. Rushworth

    Dear Editor

    Injustice and oppression lie in prohibition not for birth of a first child, but of a second or later child.

    B.M. Dickens

    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.
  • Published on:
    Gender balance and sex equality

    Dear Editor

    Without intervention, a small preponderance of female over male infants will be born, and female children will have a slightly higher chance of living to maturity. Thereafter, the female population will decline relatively sharply in consequence of death in childbirth. Historical evidence indicates that throughout the recorded history of Britain, there was a relative scarcity of women and men dominated...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.