Moral concerns beyond blue vs. pink

There's news for mothers who want to know the gender of their unborn babies earlier in the pregnancy. But is it good or bad?

By testing the mother's blood, researchers can now detect the sex of the fetus within seven weeks of conception with up to 95 percent accuracy.

The over-the-counter blood test, unlike amniocentesis, is not invasive so it poses no risk to the fetus. But what's the benefit of such information? Certainly it would be helpful to parents who have family histories of sex-linked diseases, giving them time to prepare and seek guidance.

Early knowledge of the sex, however, also risks increased abortions, particularly in societies where boys are prized over girls. In Asian countries like India and China, it's been estimated that there's a shortfall of more than 100 million women partially due to this preference for males, who carry on the family name and are perceived to be better economic investments.

And families who may already have had a few children of the same gender may be tempted to use the test to balance the sex ratios of their family trees. That makes us queasy.

With abortion legal and sex selection scientifically feasible, individuals and society should have concerns about these morally fraught decisions. As science trudges forward, it brings along new ethical challenges.

While we as a society shouldn't stand in science's way, neither should we abuse its breakthroughs.