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brangwaine ]: Medical researchers have been testing dexamethasone (a.k.a. dex), an experimental Class C steroid, on pregnant women whose fetuses may have a form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), which can lead to “masculinizing” of a female fetus’s genitals. One group of researchers, however, is claiming that using dex prenatally could not only prevent CAH, but also prevent girls from becoming lesbians, bisexuals and/or feminists.
I’ll repeat that. Or rather, I’ll rephrase:
According to research spearheaded by pediatrician Maria New, prenatal doses of dex could ensure that CAH babies – or potentially any female – grow up heterosexual, act like proper women, pursue appropriate careers and have a “normal” interest in having babies.
Because wouldn’t it be just HORRIBLE if they turned out otherwise?
I can’t add to what Alice Dreger says here about the ethics of engineering a baby’s sexual orientation in the womb (or Dan Savage’s comments here). Even io9 has some good analysis for you here.
The good news – such as it is – is that New’s research and tactics are in no way mainstream in the medical community. The bad news is, there’s a market for this kind of thing – not just the usual creatures who see homosexuality as something to be fixed, but nervous parents who are open to the idea of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which promises to not only predict potential genetic defects, but also potentially allow parents to select cosmetic traits like eye color, physical prowess and heightened intelligence.
It’s a far-from-exact science (for now), and not all that ethical. But it’s not hard to imagine some PGD lab putting a “correct sexual orientation” category on the checklist at no extra cost. And how many parents in that position would leave that box unchecked and leave it up to nature? Plenty would.
Plenty wouldn’t.
All of which tells me that the problem what needs fixing isn’t with the baby’s genes.
If it ain’t broke,
This is dF
brangwaine ]: Medical researchers have been testing dexamethasone (a.k.a. dex), an experimental Class C steroid, on pregnant women whose fetuses may have a form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), which can lead to “masculinizing” of a female fetus’s genitals. One group of researchers, however, is claiming that using dex prenatally could not only prevent CAH, but also prevent girls from becoming lesbians, bisexuals and/or feminists. I’ll repeat that. Or rather, I’ll rephrase:
According to research spearheaded by pediatrician Maria New, prenatal doses of dex could ensure that CAH babies – or potentially any female – grow up heterosexual, act like proper women, pursue appropriate careers and have a “normal” interest in having babies.
Because wouldn’t it be just HORRIBLE if they turned out otherwise?
I can’t add to what Alice Dreger says here about the ethics of engineering a baby’s sexual orientation in the womb (or Dan Savage’s comments here). Even io9 has some good analysis for you here.
The good news – such as it is – is that New’s research and tactics are in no way mainstream in the medical community. The bad news is, there’s a market for this kind of thing – not just the usual creatures who see homosexuality as something to be fixed, but nervous parents who are open to the idea of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which promises to not only predict potential genetic defects, but also potentially allow parents to select cosmetic traits like eye color, physical prowess and heightened intelligence.
It’s a far-from-exact science (for now), and not all that ethical. But it’s not hard to imagine some PGD lab putting a “correct sexual orientation” category on the checklist at no extra cost. And how many parents in that position would leave that box unchecked and leave it up to nature? Plenty would.
Plenty wouldn’t.
All of which tells me that the problem what needs fixing isn’t with the baby’s genes.
If it ain’t broke,
This is dF
