DEVELOPING HALAKHIC ATTITUDES TO SEX PRESELECTION

CONTEMPORARY EFFICIENT METHODS THROUGH A TRADITIONAL LENS

The question that goes unanswered by the classic sources is, would Jewish tradition be quite so encouraging if sex preselection techniques of an efficient scientific rather than an uncertain textual nature were utilized? The term"efficient" in this context is used to refer to those technologies that can legitimately aspire to reliability rates of 100 percent, while the term "uncertain" refers to those methods which- while somewhat effective- will always leave room for doubt over the outcome.

Contemporary scientific knowledge provides several options for choosing a child's sex which offer a degree of certainty that could prove to be far more enticing than rabbinic methods. Setting aside the reprehensible practice of abortions for sex selection purposes, which- on any view of the halakhah- are totally unacceptable,'’ alternative procedures are now available which show constantly improving measures of success. In the last two decades, advances have made both pre- and post-conceptive selection methods possible. One post-conceptive technique- yet to gain any widespread acceptance- would afford a virtually assured outcome by combining genetic testing with I.V_F. to ascertain that the four-cell embryo to be implanted in the womb is indeed of the chosen sex.'' It is hard to imagine, however, that the invasive procedures required to procure eggs from the woman's body, combined with the relatively low overall efficiency of I.V.F., would make this a particularly popular technique for sex selection amongst the vast majority of couples who have no need for I.V.F..

It is, therefore, the pre-conceptive technique of sperm separation which is more commonly embraced despite its lower success rate. In this procedure, sperm obtained from the male is separated in the laboratory into androsperm(male-bearing) and gynosperm(female-bearing), whereupon the desired sperm type is introduced into the woman using artificial insemination by husband(A.I.H.). With a success rate reported from 75 to 95 percent,'” this method is unquestionably effective, it is certainly a

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