I wouldn’t. It’s not just that I don’t have a preference in the sexual orientation of my children. For one thing, I have heard amniocentesis referred to as safe and proven, and after researching it, I found that the spontaneous abortion rate due to the procedure is unacceptable to me.
Another would be if this procedure could guarantee sameness in one area, I would worry there are other areas it would be influencing toward sameness. I don’t like that idea at all. I think we are served better by diversity than by sameness.
My son has a mutation which is autosomal dominant. If he has children, even odds are they will get the mutation, and expression tends to be higher and more problematic in the second generation. I love my son as he is. In a way, I think it might be easier for him if he were gay. Making the decision not to have children would be easier to carry out, if that is what he would choose.
I told my doctor that I did not want any prenatal tests which did not give results that could be acted upon other than through abortion. I had ultrasounds, as they reveal that which can be treated in various ways. I did not have CVS as it did not.
No. Notwithstanding that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being gay, such a course of action is one step too close to the kind of meddlesome control humans always manage to fuck up somehow. Human genetics should be left to the vagaries of nature; people only think they know what’s best for them.
In a world where it was completely safe, I’d consider it. If only because, as far as we’ve come, it has to be somewhat easier being part of the majority.
I would not exercise the option. Heck, I didn’t even want to know the sex of my babies before they were born.
I don’t give a rat’s patootie about someone carrying on my genes. Their decision to have/not have kids is none of my business.
I also think that happiness (or, more aptly, contentment) can be attained, no matter what hardships or trials one has to endure. Everyone has their cross to bear, so to speak.
That makes me think of that old hymn, Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear.
I wouldn’t. I think life would be boring if we only had one kind of person. And life without a decent drag queen in it is NOT the kind of life I want to have.
If it was a choice one could make during pregnancy and was proven to be safe, I might intervene on my children’s sexual orientation. They’d all be bisexual. Maximize their options, you know. And Captain Jack Harkness has taught me that it can lead to a galaxies spanning human empire, through our charming and trampy ways.
Speaking as a gay who fully intends to procreate at some point, homosexuality doesn’t have to be a dead end when it comes to lineage continuation (and conversely the rising trend of childless straight couples shows that heterosexuality doesn’t guarantee it either).
I also can’t help but think that if you send that message (“It’s not you that’s screwed up, it’s the rest of the world”) the message is still that it’s better to be straight. Like, a gay kid in that situation is still getting the message that the way they are really isn’t ideal. Not sure if I’m explaining this right, but I guess I’d feel like I was still letting someone down.
I think you’re explaining it well, and that it’s a good point. The fact that something like this could set progress back is one of the reasons I’d be torn. Ultimately, my hypothetical kid’s well-being comes before the well-being of everyone else though.
Hell, no! I might have a hard time relating to a straight child, but I wouldn’t do anything deliberate to effect possibly future sexual orientation of a child I was carrying. I certainly wouldn’t deliberately set out to make sure a child of mine was straight.
I find the very suggestion horrific. I am not wildly politically active, but as a queer person (who, through het privilege, is often presumed straight just because I’m married to a guy) I feel absolutely protective of my tribe within the greater generality of humanity. There are already enough attacks on people of sexual orientations or gender identities that are considered ‘other’ without fucking around with biology. Smacks of eugenics, and I do not think that what I am needs to be bred out of the species.
That’s not even beginning to tackle the question of unintended consequences.
