The ability for parents to select the gender of their baby has been made possible by advances in technology in fertility procedures. Today's parents want to be able to choose the gender of their baby and there are a multitude of reasons why a couple would want to go this route. John A. Robertson of Extending Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis mentions that one of the main reasons is that there are serious diseases that could be prevented by sex selection using preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Conversely, Marcy Darnovsky of Revisiting Sex Selection: The Growing Popularity of New Sex Selection Methods Revives and Old Debate ; I don't think parents should have the right to choose the gender of their baby. It provides support that suggests that choosing a baby's sex is a slippery slope on the path to eugenics. Both sides of the issue offer strong arguments about whether parents should be allowed to choose the gender of their baby. Historically, gender selection has been a part of our society for decades, it may not be the most popular method, but couples have used every option. Couples who didn't want a boy or a girl left the baby at the door of a church, fire station or orphanage. Some would take even more drastic measures, such as killing the unwanted child. Some societies continue to use these practices, but parents today have more advanced options when it comes to gender selection. There are technologies such as ultrasound that can determine the sex of a baby; parents can therefore choose to abort or abandon adoption if they are unhappy with the sex of the baby. In other countries like China, where the government has a policy of supporting only one child, there is strong pressure on gender selection. Although there are methods that Ame...... middle of paper ......ms and technological change (6th ed., pp. 485-491). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. The ethics committee. (1999) Sex selection and preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Retrieved November 11, 2013 from http://www.asrm.org/uploadedFiles/ASRM_Content/News_and_Publications/Ethics_Committee_Reports_and_Statements/Sex_Selection.pdfLeigh, S. (1999) Choosing the Sex of Your Baby: What the Scientists Say. Accessed November 11, 2013, from http://www.babycenter.com/0_choosing-your-babys-sex-what-the-scientists-say_2915.bc?page=1BMJ. (2001) Sex selection and preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1121384/