Accounting for the Moral Significance of Technology: Revisiting the Case of Non-Medical Sex Selection

Olya Kudina

doi:10.1007/s11673-018-9891-4

Abstract

This article explores the moral significance of technology, reviewing a microfluidic chip for sperm sorting and its use for non-medical sex selection. I explore how a specific material setting of this new iteration of pre-pregnancy sex selection technology—with a promised low cost, non-invasive nature and possibility to use at home—fosters new and exacerbates existing ethical concerns. I compare this new technology with the existing sex selection methods of sperm sorting and Prenatal Genetic Diagnosis. Current ethical and political debates on emerging technologies predominantly focus on the quantifiable risk-and-benefit logic that invites an unequivocal “either-or” decision on their future and misses the contextual ethical impact of technology. The article aims to deepen the discussion on sex selection and supplement it with the analysis of the new technology’s ethical potential to alter human practices, perceptions and the evaluative concepts with which we approach it. I suggest that the technological mediation approach (Verbeek, 2005, 2011) can be useful to ethically contextualize technologies and highlight the value of such considerations for the informed deliberation regarding their use, design and governance.

Highlights

The possibility to select a sex of one’s future child prior to pregnancy is not new, with sperm sorting and Prenatal Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), accompanied by In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) representing presentday options
Non-medical sex selection technology faces strict regulation globally, unless medically justified to prevent vertical transfer of genetic diseases; or unless the national law endorses family balancing as a qualifying non-medical motivation
PGD dominates the market of sex selection because it provides higher selection accuracy than sperm sorting (99 per cent vs. 75-85 per cent) (GenderSelect 2017)

Summary

Introduction

The possibility to select a sex of one’s future child prior to pregnancy is not new, with sperm sorting and Prenatal Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), accompanied by In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) representing presentday options. I would like to consider the potential leap of SST+ to human use, I want to stress that there is no support for pursuing this agenda from the technology developers Such an anticipative exploratory study is useful and necessary, as a testbed for considering previously unacknowledged moral significance of the material setting in the sex selection practice. The risk-benefit considerations polarize the discussion concerning sex selection in two camps: those who consider that the possible harms of this technology render it impermissible and those who suggest that the possible benefits of non-medical SST outweigh potential risks. I use the technological mediation approach to anticipate and understand the possible societal impact of such a material change in sex selection in the context where conceptual appropriation of SST+ is already possible, owing to the promises, concerns, hopes and fears that surround its development. The purpose of the cluster scheme below is to allow a somewhat structured navigation of the ways in which SST+ can mediate the moral landscape

Demedicalization of the Sex Selection Practice

Findings

Discussion