Don’t Like Surprises? Too Bad. Parents Banned From Knowing Sex Of Child

The process of sex selection and aborting fetuses purely because they don’t have the set of chromosomes you were hoping for is barbaric, not least when it’s done to avoid having daughters. Few of us would dispute this — but has a move to prevent it gone too far?

A proposed law, a draft resolution of which has been passed by the Council of Europe, may find medical staff banned from revealing the sex of fetuses to any expectant parents.

Sex selection is worryingly popular in some of the Soviet member countries, but as the law stands it will not only cover areas seeing high or increasing levels of sex selection, but will affect all 47 countries in the Council, including the UK. So if you head into the hospital hoping to discover whether you need to knit pink booties or blue, prepare to be disappointed. Best make them yellow, or start bucking cultural conditioning early.

As a side note, the media coverage of this proposed law has been frustrating. The Daily Mail, Digital Journal, Telepgraph and others, start off with good intentions but quickly fall into familiar patterns; their headlines including ‘parents’ but content ultimately addressing ‘mothers.’ It may seem like petty nit-picking but these linguistic and cultural habits need to be broken for they affect us all on a sub-conscious level. Having a child should be referred to as something both parents do, pregnancy is not just a women’s issue.

The ban seems a quick, and ultimately shallow, solution for a deep and troubling social problem. For those determined enough, there will always be ways of getting around it and securing yourself a son rather than daughter. After all, when it’s mom, dad and the ultrasound tech in the room, who’s going to tell?

What’s more, the Council of Europe doesn’t have the legal capacity to enforce laws in its member states. The laws are more often enacted as a result of treaties or conventions, so if the governments and health systems of Western European nations don’t approve of the recommendations, then don’t have to sign up for them.

And in the UK, most parents don’t find out the sex of their child until the 20th week of pregnancy. By this stage abortion is illegal unless for medical reasons. Those parents who continue to pursue abortion for sex selection purposes must surely be determined, and a diplomatic recommendation is unlikely to sway them.

Governments would be better placed tackling the underlying prejudices towards women in the cultures engaging with sex selection, rather than applying ineffective blanket policies to all expectant parents. If women cannot, or are discouraged from; working, owning land, filing for divorce, carrying on the family name or voting, will preventing doctors from telling parents the sex of their child really fix the problem?

Contact the author here: brianna@morningquickie.com