4 - Sunday, September 7, 1986 - North Shore News Bob Hunter @ strictly personal @ oy FEMINISTS and Pro-Lifers are reportedly outraged by research being done at UBC which might help would-be parents determine the sex of their child before the wee entity climbs off the ovarian trolley. According to Betty Green of Pro-Life, ‘it's an Orwellian nightmare come true. And a science-fiction horror.*’ Sounds interesting! What is being tested is a little kit which can already be bought in the U.S. for a mere fifty bucks. Called ‘*Gender Choice,”’ it gives you an 85-per cent chance of picking the sex of your kid. The idea of parents having even more god-like powers than they already have does not sit well with everybody. According to some critics, there is a great potential for damage here. “What's wrong with being able to order a boy or a girl, according to your wishes? I think...we will end up with another kind of natural balance anyway.’ As it is now, there are ap- parently 106 males born for every 100 females on Planet Earth. That extra margin ap- pears to have been built into our collective reproduction pat- tern to. make up for the loss of males that inevitably occurs along the way because we are much more prone to killing ourselves through booze, drugs, fast cars and war than the generally meeker and calmer femmes. : By adopting techniques that give parents the power to con- trol the sex of their child, Ms. Green, the Pro-Life person, argues that ‘‘all we’re going to do is upset nature and create a more violent society.”’ Hm. [I’m afraid all this sounds like neo-Luddite hand-wringing. What’s wrong with being able to order a boy or a girl, accor- ding to your wishes? | think, left to our own devices, we will end ‘up with another kind of natural balance anyway. I know one couple who has three daughters. They badly wanted a boy. The wife, alas, couldn’t have any more kids after her third one, and so they have to settle for what they’ve got. Still, they feel cheated. The experience of parenthood can’t be complete if all your kids are of the same sex. This isn’t to say that it’s anything but wonderful, ete. H's just that it’s not fully realized, let’s say. Another couple | know have stopped after two boys, again for medical reasons. They badly wanted a dvughter. Of course, they love both sons, but they do look wistfully upon my own lit- tle daughter as she skips around, all buttercups and tra- fa-la. Finally, | ran into some old friends a while ago who had just had their second child, giv- ing them two boys. The father in this case already had a son from a previous marriage, so this made it three boys in a row for him. He was glum. I’ve been lucky in the extreme in this regard. In my first mar- riage, | acquired a boy and then a girl. Second marriage, same deal, giving me two daughters and two sons. The truth of the matter is that having kids is an educa- tion. You do learn from them, if only because you get to observe the miraculous transformation of a tiny human creature with an infinite ego in- to a large human creature with an infinite ego. It’s fike getting to watch the last couple of million years of human evolution being replayed at high speed before your very eyes. First, they are all nutrients coming and going. Within a year they have progressed to the monkey stage. By 10, most of them could cope with life in a primitive society. In the teen years, of course, they mysteriously go back to the monkey stage. My experience is that [ learn more from my daughters than fram my sons. Boyhood is: an experience, after all, that ] went through a long time ago — and am quite familiar with, thanks. The lads themselves are no doubt convinced they know more than me, but the fact is 1 have a head start on them along the biological trail. Not so with daughters. Wat- ching them grow from embryos into women is one of life’s more fascinating spectacles. Ms. Green can worry all she wants about upsetting nature, the fact is that, more than ever, people want to be able to plan their family life right down to the Y chromosome. It is just plain dumb to say that they haven’t got a “‘right’’ to do it. They have. And they will exercise it as soon as they. can. Why roll dice when you can draw a bead on a sperm, so fo speak, and get what you want? Designer babies! Sounds ter- rific. Local youths attempt W. Shore News seam THE NEWS is wasning businesses of a hoax being perpetrated by a half dozen youngsters following the theft of some classified ad pads from the newspaper's Lonsdale of- fices recently. The pads were used by the youngsters who iepresented themselves as News employees to a number of businesses on Lonsdale. Merchants were advised that th. newspaper was about to go out of business in its present form and rise in a new guise. The youngsters told businesses that they should sign che classified pads in order to be included in the new News. N. Shore Hospice Society to hold general meeting LIONS GATE Hospice Society will be holding its third annual general meeting Sept. 10 at LGH. The Hospice Society works to provide care for terminally ill pa- tients. The public is invited to attend the meeting, which starts at 7:30 p.m., and learn more about palliative care. There will be a short business meeting and elections will be held. Memberships to the society will be availabie. Lone term goals of the Hospice Society include plans for an ex- panded, self-contained Hospice NORTH SHORE VOLVO! KOKANEE SOCCER CLUB 2nd division Metro are looking for enthusiastic players 18 years and older for Fall Season. Phone Brian or Kent Days 689-5115 Eves 985-6258 Unit at LGH. Currently the Hospice Society supports the Palliative Care Unit at LGH by providing equipment and services not provided by stan- dard hospital admission. 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