About Me

Maybe if I stop changing my mind on what I want to be when I "grow up" I'll end up with a degree and a job! Right now, I'm about to start a new school... I have a wonderful son and awesome hubby. I am a flutist and bassoonist, music is my first love.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

A Link a Day: Blood Test Detects Fetal Sex Much Earlier in Pregnancy

Blood test detects fetal sex much earlier in pregnancy
"A May analysis in The Lancet estimates that between 4.2 million and 12.1 million female fetuses were "selectively" aborted in India from 1980 to 2010
  Although many would be able to use this information for good, such as testing for rare gender-based diseases and other genetic disorders, many feel that the abortion rate would increase due to gender-selection.

It is well known that India and China have long practiced gender-selection, and a tool like this may make it even easier. It is much easier, and some consider less amoral to abort a fetus during the first trimester. Currently, gender can't be determined until around the 20th week via ultrasound.

Not sure where I stand on this one. I have no desire personally to know the gender of my child before he or she is born. If my child was at risk for a gender-specific genetic disease, I may choose to find out, but only that it may prepare my mentally for the possibility of a special needs child, not so I could abort a potentially imperfect baby.

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