title: Big brothers and little sisters? Sex selection and birth order.
abstract: Should you be allowed to choose the sex of your child? Even before the advent of modern reproductive technologies, people have expressed interest in producing a child of a specific sex, trying everything from herbal treatments to sexual positions that have been claimed to produce a male or female child. Modern technologies such as flow cytometry make this a realistic possibility but what might the consequences be? In India and China, a preference for male offspring has led (via abortion) to a significant sex-ratio imbalance in those populations. Do other countries express strong preferences for male or female offspring? This article will address the possible birth order implications. Will we live in a world of first-born boys and second-born girls?
authors.affiliation: University of Redlands, Redlands, California 92373-0999, USA. catherine_salmon@redlands.edu
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Salmon
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D001722:Birth Order / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D012743:Sex Preselection