• Have you heard any modern stories about how to increase the chance of having a boy or a girl? Why do you think people believe these stories?

Lesson 15

Objectives:

To explain that allowing people to choose the sex of their baby may skew the sex balance of the population

To explain the implication that this may have

1. People have many reasons for wishing they could choose the sex of their child:

Nita is pregnant. She and Sam have three girls already and they want their next baby to be a boy.

2. Jill and Steven’s first child, a boy, has Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a genetic condition causing progressive muscle weakness. They know that if their next child is a boy, he too could develop DMD, but that if they have a daughter, she is unlikely to be affected. They want Jill’s next child to be a girl.

a Give reasons why each couple want to select the sex of their next child. b Do you agree that these couples should be allowed to

select the sex of their next child? Give reasons for your answers.

Worksheet – 15b Girl or Boy

Ethical animals – cloning animals