Sex preselection: an aid to couples or a threat to humanity?

Whenever there is a new technological tool that pries into the secrets of life the majority reacts with caution, if not negatively altogether. On 10 September 1998, the Italian press gave the news of the discovery of a method to predetermine the sex of a new baby with 90% accuracy (Fugger et al., 1998) in sensational terms: 'A little boy or a little girl? Soon children by order!' (La Repubblica); 'The new method (of sex preselec-tion) is under accusation' (Il Corriere della Sera); 'Science without limitations; alarm and polemics' (Il Messaggero). Although we are no exception to the rule of skin-deep reactions and see the obvious reasons for this type of behaviour, we also believe that bioethics teaches us, before we pass a moral judgement, to ask ourselves a few fundamental questions, the first two being: is the new tool going to harm the individual(s) to whom it is to be applied and is it going to harm a community, a country, or humanity at large. This is because, after 800 years, we still believe in the moral imperative laid down by the Schola Salernitana: 'Primum, non nocere' (first, do no harm). Therefore, in trying to evaluate the new frontier of reproduction , sex preselection, we would like to limit ourselves to applying this, and only this, general principle. At the same time, we are aware that there are a number of important philosophical and religious considerations which also form an integral part of the foundation of any judgement on this matter. These are, however, arguments that people other than us are better qualified to develop. Obviously, in the case of reproduction, the situation is always complicated by the presence of three separate 'actors', with sometimes conflicting interests: the two members of the couple and the child to be conceived. Therefore, the questions become threefold , the first being: 'Is sex preselection harmful to the future child?' There seems to be an obvious answer to this: 'no'. At the same time it has to be stressed that those who (like Barry Zirkin of Johns Hopkins) caution against potential harm, because 'it has not been established that the technique of selecting chromosomes through fluorescence staining and laser illumination is without risk for the product of conception' (La Repubblica, 10 September, 1998), need to be proven wrong. Evaluating safety poses difficult problems, the first being the feasibility of testing this method in …