DEVELOPING HALAKHIC ATTITUDES TO SEX PRESELECTION

From the perspective of progressive Judaism , insofar as real societal gender imbalances could be demonstrated, the effect would be an undermining of the acceptability of efficient sex preselection procedures. If indeed couples were to produce a meaningfully greater number of males than females, and if the corollary of that outcome was in fact a lack of marriage partners, or increased prostitution, violence and rape, then certainly a progressive Jewish outlook could not be tolerant of the resultant social turmoil. In any society in which this was the threatened consequence of sex preselection, progressive Judaism would take a dim view of the practice. Moreover, if it could be shown that efficient sex preselection produced a higher rate of first-born males, and if it could also be established that first-born offspring tend to be more dominant in a given population, then progressive Judaism 's unswerving dedication to gender equality would call for a swift rejection of such procedures.

There are, of course, those who see potential societal benefits flowing from effective sex preselection. They argue that the plentiful

number of sex selection abortions that take place from the first world to the third would be substantially reduced by easily accessible sex preselection.” While there is no doubt that progressive Judaism would have a preference for sex preselection procedures over abortions, this does not necessarily raise sex preselection to the level of being a desideratum. Nor does the other possible beneficial outcome, that of limiting population expansion ­by delivering to parents the sex of their choice without the need for retrying - make sex preselection anything more than a quick cure for ills that better education and heightened prosperity must ultimately address. In any case, while Jews certainly have concerns about the population explosion in various parts of the world, Jewish numbers today are only 75 percent of what they were in 1939, so the halakhic advice given to Jews should definitely not include using sex selection to help restrict the need for multiple children. Indeed Reform Judaism is on record as counting it a mitzvah"..to consider the matter of family size carefully and with due regard to the problem of Jewish survival."