Essay Instructions: ****Baby-making needs a surprise or two****
****Author Kathleen Parker***
When so much can be known, not knowing is increasingly appealing.
The latest advance in ``knowing,'' creepily called ``preimplantation genetic diagnosis,'' allows prospective parents not only to know, but to select the sex of their barely conceived offspring.
Always wanted a bouncing baby boy but keep having girls? No problem. PGD has taken the guesswork out of baby-making and the randomness of birth as we have always known it.
A Newsweek article about the new science of sex selection features happy couples who got the girl or boy they wanted, as well as critics of the latest ``choice.'' Not everyone is swooning over this new advance given the myriad ethical issues that arise any time humans ratchet up their god-like powers.
Just because we can, should we? And who should decide? Is this yet another place government doesn't belong? If not a matter for government oversight, then who should decide what we do with human life in all its permutations -- pre-born, test-tubed, sperm-selected and ova-donated.
Priests, rabbis and imams? A jury of one's peers? Bioethicists?
Underscoring the debates sure to continue is a depressing inevitability to all of it. The sense is that though distasteful on many levels, selecting a baby's sex -- and perhaps someday details such as eye color, height, intelligence -- is an unstoppable trend. Variously celebrated or abhorred, what used to be the stuff of science fiction is the non-fiction story of our here and now.
Family planning no longer means counting moon phases. Increasingly, it's a matter of mapping gender and genes. Already some specialty sperm and egg banks offer ``Ivy League'' donors; hundreds of couples have signed up for sex-selection trials.
What's the big deal about identifying sex, proponents ask? If a family has three boys and wants a girl, why shouldn't they have the option to choose? Questions far outnumber answers thus far, which may be an answer in itself.
Some pragmatists worry that sex selection could become a new form of sex discrimination. Or that we might upset the balance of nature by fooling with the ratio of boys to girls, as occurred in China when families limited to one child aborted females.
Sex selection also adds a prickly new dimension to the abortion issue. If you order a girl and mistakenly get a boy, do you abort? Of course, you certainly may, and some have. Wrong sex, wrong time, wrong mood. Getting born these days is a tricky proposition.
If you're getting the heebie-jeebies about now, I'd say that's a good sign. Here's at least one question I haven't heard asked: When did it become accepted wisdom that people should always get exactly what they want? Since when are perfect outcomes the standard by which we measure quality of life?
I'm worried about our humanity. In the words of Leon Kass, chair of the President's Council on Bioethics, ``We all have a stake in keeping human reproduction human.''
The other wrinkle that bears consideration is the disappointment factor. When we're so invested in specific outcomes, don't we increase the likelihood of being let down?
In every case, I suspect, a degree of narcissism creeps into the romantic equation that results in our little darlings. Father wants a son just like Dad; Mother wants a daughter just like Mom. Me? I just want someone who'll visit me in the nursing home.
Whatever we might hope for in advance of knowing, most of us are satisfied with 10 fingers and 10 toes. In fact, delight describes the usual reaction when people learn the sex of their babies, whether before or after birth.
A boy! Why, I always wanted one of those.
But when our procreative urge morphs into a quantifiable desire, the underlying motivation of which may not be clear, we risk dire disappointment and possibly our capacity for the unconditional love parenting requires.
Besides which, life without surprises would be intolerably boring.
TOPIC:
-The author ?Kathleen Parker?, gave four reasons against the PGD.
-We should write an essay to convey the readers that PGD is very useful and and agree with it.
***No need to have quotations, parenthetical citations, footnotes, etc.
INTRODUCTION: (5 Sentences)
-General attention getter. Question what do you like? (A boy or a girl), 1 sentences.
-Background ? Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnotic (PGD), (2-3 sentences)-introduce the argument, controversial.
THESIS: (2 sentence), focus of topic ? reasons (general).
-Sample: PGD is a good choice for me because I would know what thing to buy and I already have a girl?.
BODY:
1st paragraph: A reason sentence (tell the reader what the sentence is about).
-Example: Being able to plan to buy clothes, toys etc., for a baby before birth is an advantage of knowing the gender.
-Specific example to explain the reason (About 2 sentences).
-Example: I call all my friends, my relatives so they can give the baby gift when born.
-Explanation the sentences.
-Example: Having the appropriate items will avoid concerns about buying the wrong things.
2nd BODY PARAGRAPH: (4-6 Sentences).
-Reason sentence: (Say in a different way, but most in a transition that connect to the 1st).
-Example: More importantly, PGD will balance my family?
-Explanation sentences:
***Example: Therefore, a boy and a girl would make both the couple very happy.
CONCLUSION: (3-5 sentences), Reemphasize thesis (do not need the reasons).
-Example: The benefits of PGD ?..
-Make a suggestion
-Look to the future.
-Offer a solution.
***Example: I suggest that any couples want to have a boy or girl they want, they can use PGD. Look for the future, if PGD is popular?people will use it alots.
