Seminar hosted by Tempo and Mode: Centre for Macroevolution and Macroecology, ANU

Abstract: A new technique called Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) has been developed which can detect a range of genetic and chromosomal diseases as well as fetal sex earlier, more easily and more reliably. NIPT therefore expands the market for sex determination and sex selective abortion. I argue that both practices should be prevented by not including fetal sex in prenatal test reports. This is because there is a discrepancy between what parents are concerned with (gender) and what the prenatal test can provide (sex). I first demonstrate the absence of a causal link between sex and gender before presenting parental motivations for sex selection and sex determination to show that parents are not concerned with their child’s sex chromosomes, or even their genitalia, but the gender role that their child will espouse. However, a prenatal test can only reveal fetal sex. We are thus left with a situation in which what parents are told and what they think they are being told are two different things. In other words, as the conflation of sex with gender is implicit in the disclosure of fetal sex, it may be more accurate to refer to it as misinformation. This misinformation promotes sexism via gender essentialism, which is neither in the interests of the future child or society.