Baby Gender Selection: Ethical Considerations

Gender selection is becoming more and more practiced and advertised around the world.

But what is Gender Selection?

Is it your basic right or crime against humanity?
Will it open possibility of an unbalanced sex ratio? Or will it open the door for balancing the family by choosing a girl after two boys, or the contrary?
Will it aggravate gender discrimination within societies were gender biases already present? Or will it create an increase in the value of women in those societies and result in them being treated better by males?
Will it interfere with nature? Or will it help her by preventing so called X-linked diseases, e.g. Hemophilia, Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, and Fragile X-syndrome?

***According to the Center for Genetics and Society , pro-choice organization working for sensible policies on genetic engineering technology, sex selection is ethically and socially unjustifiable.
The case against sex selection    PDF version

***According to the the American Society for Reproductive Medicine , a group which establishes ethical guidelines for fertility clinics, parents should be able to select the gender of their child.
Sex selection approved by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)    PDF version

The previous position of the ASRM, was that such selection "should be discouraged."
Sex selection and preimplantation genetic diagnosis    PDF version
Preconception gender selection for nonmedical reasons    PDF version

The fact that, worldwide, there are estimated 100 million missing women as the result of gender selection is simply frightening! This is a valid issue and should be addressed by those cultures, where a preference for male children is expressed for obvious "social" reasons. Sexist gender stereotypes should not dictate who is born. In Western countries this problem does not exist. The reverse appears to be true. There seems to be a preference for a girl.

So, I believe, the problem is not with sex selection but rather with the social contexts in which it happens. If there is no obvious cultural preference for boys or girls and both genders are equal, no government regulation are needed and gender selection becomes just a matter of family balancing, free choice, prevention of X-linked diseases and ... it becomes a matter of your personal ethical choice.