Another Reason NOT to Play God: Extinction

Health and Science for Sunday 071711

Hey folks,

We have indeed come a long way from finding out that Aspirin has many beneficial uses. From our understanding as to WHAT DNA is to Cell Research and Genetic Engineering or Genetic Modification. It is a complicated process but basically this means direct Manipulation of an Organism's Genome using DNA Technology.

With all this advancement, Doctors can also now create or identify Embryos of a certain Sex. Yup. You want a Boy, Shazam! You got a Boy. If you can afford it of course. Want a Girl? Shazam! You got a Girl. Some say they can even GUARANTEE the Eye, Hair Color, Height, Future Intelligence.

Now my Wife and I REALLY wanted a Girl. We got two Boys. Great! Joshua and Elijah. I love my Boys. I AM a Proud Papa. I would not change ANYTHING. But what if I had decided that I wanted to GUARANTEE a Girl? Eli would be Mia. What of the Future? What will Eli do? What would NEVER happen if he was Mia? ETC.

Now the argument, "What if he WAS Mia? What will never happen because he IS a Boy?" doesn't work. He IS what he is MEANT to be. No Human interference. He was MEANT to be Eli. He was Born Eli. His "Destiny" IS Eli.

Here is one classic example of WHY we should NEVER play God.

Rural India has experienced a sharp fall in the ratio of female to male children, new census data shows, indicating sex-selection technology has reached even the country's remotest areas.

India's villages house just 919 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of six, reflecting a massive decline from the 2001 ratio showing 934 girls for every 1,000 boys, according to figures released Friday,

The data was seen as confirming fears that villagers are now using cheap and portable ultrasound technology easily available in India's cities in order to carry out illegal sex-selective abortions in favour of the male child.

Well that is another way people guarantee the Sex. Kill the opposite.

"Earlier villagers had to go to the city to get a sonogram," Poonam Muttreja, executive director of the non-profit Population Foundation of India.

"Today sonographers are going into the villages to cater to people who want sons," she told AFP.

The ratio in urban India, at 902 girls per 1,000 boys, is worse than in the countryside but the drop -- from 906 girls in 2001 -- is much smaller than the steep fall seen in the villages.

The national ratio, 914 girls for every 1,000 boys, is at its lowest since India's independence in 1947 and compares with a global average of 1,050 girls for every 1,000 boys, figures released earlier in the year showed.

Married women in India face huge pressure to produce male heirs who are seen as breadwinners, family leaders and carers when parents age. Girls are often viewed as a burden in traditional families as they require hefty dowries to be married off.

India has a long history of female infanticide -- of girls suffocated, poisoned, drowned or left to die.

More common now, thanks to technological advances, is the abortion of female foetuses, or "female foeticide" -- a simple, cheap and difficult to police process with ultrasound tests costing as little as $10.

Brinda Karat, senior member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), told AFP the recent decline in rural India was "not at all surprising".

"Once the preference for a son becomes the dominant preference in a society, it affects all sections of society right across the board," she said.

As many as half a million female foetuses are estimated to be aborted each year in India despite the practice being banned in the country, according to a 2006 study by British medical journal Lancet.

So what happens when there is more of one Sex, than another? You guessed it, eventually there will only BE one, then you have Extinction. Same argument as to why Homosexuality is against Nature. Two Lesbians and Two Gay Guys go off and live on an Island. They die. No more people. Get the Point?

I have two boys for a very specific reason. YOU were born the way you are for a VERY specific reason. You may not know it now, perhaps you may NEVER know it, but you are here for a reason. Do you think Obama's Great Grandfather KNEW that Obama would one day be the President of the United States? Nope. By if he CHOSE to have a Girl before, then his GRANDFATHER would never have been, meaning Obama's Father would have never been, which means? You got it.

So this is why we need to stop playing God. It's OK to come up with new methods to treat those that may be sick, or to prevent Sickness. But to play God, and CHOOSE the Sex, and to chose who lives and who dies? Not a bright future do we pave for ourselves.
Peter

Sources:
AFP Via Yahoo News - Rural India's Gender Imbalance Widens