Homosexuality, Abortion, and Eugenics, Oh My!
I was reading this week's Time Magazine, and an article popped out that proposed an interesting topic. It involves research on gay Rams, and biological origins for homosexuality in sheep. Apparently gay sheep cost the sheep industry money, because breeders want to make sure that as many male sheep as possible reproduce. Though it hasn't been the goal of this research in particular, it's detractors fear that science may one day be able to make gay animals straight for breeding purposes. This of course creates an interesting argument for humans. Here's a snippet from the Time article:
What would happen if research like Roselli's did lead to, as the Sunday Times imagined, "a 'straightening' procedure [such as] a hormone supplement for mothers-to-be, worn like a nicotine patch"? I hope scientists have better things to do, but would a Hetero Patch be so awful? It would allow bigoted women to get what they want--straight kids--and ensure that gay kids grow up with moms who, at the very least, didn't try to prevent their existence. Gay people seem to fear we would die out if such a device existed.
Here's another take from the Sunday Times:
But what of the darker scenario in which we merely discover scientific clues to the origins of homosexuality in human embryos and allow the potentially gay ones to be selectively aborted? That, it seems to me, is by far the likelier scenario. In fact, we’d be naive not to expect something like it....In such a world, liberals and conservatives would be at sea. America’s religious right would have to make a choice between its goal of ridding the world of homosexuality and its strong opposition to abortion. Liberals would have to concede that genetics do indeed matter - and deal with the consequences. But how could they square their support for the right to abortion if it meant the deliberate extinction of a beleaguered minority?
So here are my questions:
1. I know it's fantasy, but what if a supplement were created to make your potentially gay fetus straight? I don't expect anyone to admit to wanting to take it, but would you want such a supplement to be illegal so that no mother could choose to take it?
2. Aside from the Pro-Choice vs. Pro-Life argument, how ethical or not would it be for a mother to abort her fetus solely on the grounds that it might be gay?
ETA: I didn't know this was already posted, but since nothing regarding abortion was in the original posting, I thought I'd leave it. To further the abortion question, if you are Pro-Choice, would aborting a fetus just because it tested as homosexual be okay?
What would happen if research like Roselli's did lead to, as the Sunday Times imagined, "a 'straightening' procedure [such as] a hormone supplement for mothers-to-be, worn like a nicotine patch"? I hope scientists have better things to do, but would a Hetero Patch be so awful? It would allow bigoted women to get what they want--straight kids--and ensure that gay kids grow up with moms who, at the very least, didn't try to prevent their existence. Gay people seem to fear we would die out if such a device existed.
Here's another take from the Sunday Times:
But what of the darker scenario in which we merely discover scientific clues to the origins of homosexuality in human embryos and allow the potentially gay ones to be selectively aborted? That, it seems to me, is by far the likelier scenario. In fact, we’d be naive not to expect something like it....In such a world, liberals and conservatives would be at sea. America’s religious right would have to make a choice between its goal of ridding the world of homosexuality and its strong opposition to abortion. Liberals would have to concede that genetics do indeed matter - and deal with the consequences. But how could they square their support for the right to abortion if it meant the deliberate extinction of a beleaguered minority?
So here are my questions:
1. I know it's fantasy, but what if a supplement were created to make your potentially gay fetus straight? I don't expect anyone to admit to wanting to take it, but would you want such a supplement to be illegal so that no mother could choose to take it?
2. Aside from the Pro-Choice vs. Pro-Life argument, how ethical or not would it be for a mother to abort her fetus solely on the grounds that it might be gay?
ETA: I didn't know this was already posted, but since nothing regarding abortion was in the original posting, I thought I'd leave it. To further the abortion question, if you are Pro-Choice, would aborting a fetus just because it tested as homosexual be okay?