Hi, would anyone please be able to give me feedback on my practice LNAT essay?

In the future, should parents be able to choose the sex of their children?




Sex is the biological term given to the type of genitalia a person possesses, these can only be of the male and female kind. However, sex has no influence on an individual's personality, for example their interests or hobbies. Usually, a child's sex is determined by their chromosomes - the one passed down by the sperm, with two X chromosomes indicating that a child is female, whereas an X and a Y chromosomes indicating that a child is male. Parents being able to choose the sex of their child could lead to many ethical issues, with many 'traditionalists' choosing their child's sex based upon societal views and beliefs. For example, in some cultures people are looked down upon if their first child is not male, hence, allowing for parents to choose their child's gender may lead to an increase of one sex of children being born and a decrease in the other. This would lead to a disproportion in the ratio of men to women, which would be detrimental to society as reproduction rates would massively decrease, causing the human race to surely die out. Furthermore, this disproportion could to excessive depression rates due to the notion of 'survival of the fittest', as the predominant gender would have more to compete with, whereas the other gender (who would likely be female) would be forced to reproduce in order to continue the race. However, parents choosing their child's sex may be of benefit, particularly in the instance of heditary diseases. For instance, there are some diseases that are carried on the X chromosome, which men only have one of, hence men are more likely to suffer from this diesease than women would be. So, in cases such as this where parents are aware that their child may inherit a faulty X chromosome, it would be advantageous for the parents to determine the sex of their child in order to prevent their suffering or pain. This would lead to certain illnesses being eradicated through evolution, but may also lead to the development of newer ones, which may have a worse impact on society. Moreover, adjusting the sex of a child would likely be an expensive process, which would either be incredibly straining on the government and National Health Service's resources, or would be a private process which individuals would have to fund themsleves. If the government were to fund this procedure, it would lead to less money being given to life-saving treatments - causing less people to survive dangerous diseases. This could also cause more pay drops for doctors and nurses, which would be unfair as these people are the ones providing live-saving treatments and cures, and should be payed adequyately for that. Although, if this were to be a private process, it would only be the wealthy who could afford it, meaning that the middle and upper class would have a 'benefit' that would be completely inaccessible to the public, creating this subdivision of 'superior' beings who can essentially change nature. To conclude, if parents were to choose the sex of their child, it would likely have both positive and negative effects on society; although some diseases could be removed from the race, not everybody would be able to access this without great strain on the government's funds.