Sex Selection discriminatory

A number or organisatons have lashed out at a Bioethics Council recommendation to government that parents undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) should be allowed to select the gender of their babies.

Mr Greally, Asperger’s Syndrome New Zealand Information Officer and Wendy Wicks, DPA policy researcher rejected the Bioethics Council’s claim that it had reflected the wishes of participants in their research.

The Catholic Bioethics Centre said that If introduced, the recommendations would make society less inclusive, marginalising society’s most vulnerable members—the unborn and disabled. 

Sex Selection Recommendation Not Welcomed By People With Asperger’s Syndrome
Press Release: Asperger’s Syndrome NZ

Commenting on the release of the Bioethics Council recommendation to Government to allow sex selection within IVF programmes for social reasons, John Greally, Information Officer for Asperger’s Syndrome New Zealand said today

“It takes a rather thoughtless breed of eugenicists to recommend this thin-end-of-the-wedge approach to introducing what will end in tragedy if the recommendation is not killed-off immediately.”

“Any hint of the heinous practice of sex selection being permitted will inevitably pave the way to genocide against communities with conditions that are preponderant in one gender or the other. Asperger’s Syndrome, a less severe form of Autism, is known to affect up to eight times more males than females.”

“People with Asperger’s, a non-apparent neurological and social condition usually accompanied by giftedness, vigilantly oppose any discriminatory action that could impinge on their status as equal and equally valued beings. Not only would the culture and community of this profoundly different group of people be jeopardized by any form of sex selection being allowed, but humanity itself would be exposed by unelected technocrats to the loss of an essential gene pool consisting of a very special inventive, detailed, focussed group of original thinkers that are reputed to have included the likes of Nikola Tesla - inventor of the electric motor, and Alfred Hitchcock - responsible for a significant sub-genre of motion picture.”

“The Bioethics Council claim to have reflected the wishes of participants in their research – a claim flatly rejected by people with Asperger’s who played an active part in deliberations and who see this as a set-up.”

“It is thoughtless advice for Bioethics Council chairman Associate Professor Martin Wilkinson to say to Government that key decisions regarding gender should be left to parents. Only those with an exceedingly shortsighted and forgetful view of the value of genetic difference could jump to such an appalling conclusion. To begin to allow for the long-term elimination of a class of beings who, while not as skilled at social interaction, have traditionally excelled in many other vital areas of endeavour is to make a down-payment on the downfall of civilisation in the opinion of Asperger’s Syndrome New Zealand ”.

ends

Click here to read DPA media release