As an aside, has anyone here read 'Brave New World'? Genetic manipulation is a form of selective breeding, just as abortion is, though the former seems so much more wholesome than the latter to many people. But since it has been already mentioned, I think abortion is a topic all of its own, and is also a personal choice. I can't decide for anyone what is or isn't a good reason to abort a pregnancy any more than what is or isn't a good reason to choose not to have children, or to manipulate the human genetic code in a lab. I can decide for my self what I consider logically and morally right or wrong, and act based on that. But if we were to look at "sex-selective abortion" from an unemotional and purely logical standpoint, and use China as an example, the gender ratio as of 2006 was 1.13 males to every female, the highest ratio in the world. The issue here is *lack of education*, not the other way around. For cultural and financial reasons, males are preferred. And they are now facing the consequences of bad breeding practice, to put it bluntly. So aside from the obvious horrors of infanticide and our emotional reaction to it, it simply does not make logical sense, for the future of any society, to purposefully and drastically reduce the number of females in their future generations. There are indeed many poor decisions that could be made in selective breeding, but probably also some very good ones. Thankfully, I'm not boss of the baby factory, so it won't ever be up to me Speaking of autism, there are some amazing people who are autistic, and have been able to overcome their difficulties and use traits of autism to their advantage. Temple Grandin is a fantastic example. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin There is a documentary about her on Youtube. As in your personal experience Open Eyes, Autism can be incredibly destructive to families and individuals depending on the severity of symptoms. I have a friend who has Aspergers, and had an incredibly rough childhood after misdiagnosis, as well as some physical difficulties. Anyone who knows anything about Autism or Aspergers understands many of the struggles of the individual as well as the family. People didn't understand what was happening to him or why, they didn't know how to deal with his behaviour, and they chose to heavily medicate him. He told me about going on and off the medications, hallucinating, feeling emotionally and physically out of control and being scared. He told me about his social difficulties and bad experiences in school. He told me about how therapy and skills training changed his life, and having positive life experiences as an adult has made him a fairly happy and well-functioning person. When we met he was living in a tiny basement apartment and on disability, literally doing nothing but playing Warhammer. A few years later he has a car, works full time, and has a nice apartment, and lots of friends (we all have our problems so in a lot of ways he's actually doing better than I am right now). We sat down one day and watched the movie Full Metal Jacket. He had never seen it before, but when the movie was over he started taking the dialogue, which he had memorized, and making it into a comedic musical. That's what I mean about taking the strengths into account as much as the weaknesses. Temple Grandin is a fascinating woman, and respected internationally for her contributions to humane animal treatment and farming and slaughtering practices, and is considered the highest expert in her field. If you followed the Wikipedia link, you know "Grandin is listed in the 2010 Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world in the category 'Heroes'." The point I'm making is to assure people that I'm not really biased on this subject, I just think it's an interesting one to think about. Everyone has value. That was never the question. Cant Stop Crying made my point exactly There are some couples who choose not to have children due to the RH factor, and it's very common in some states to do some types of screening before marriage or having children. That's just making an educated decision. Since we have the ability to make educated decisions, I welcome everyone to make their own. I made my decision, similarly to Splitimage, in that along with the genetic factors, I also recognize my likely inability to parent in a practical sense, which unfortunately many people do not. I struggle with issues from my own upbringing, as well as the reality that I am not a stable person, and that I will not remain stable throughout my adulthood, and I choose not to take a stab at caring for another human being with much greater needs than myself when I have trouble managing my own care. These are all excellent reasons that educating people on planned parenthood would be a good first step.