Tag: Eugenics

Cheating on genetic traits

Before and after cheating genetic traits

Many people are used to returning merchandise if they find that it doesn’t match their needs. But one Chinese man went a step further, and returned his wife – getting $120,000 in a court settlement.

­Jian Feng, living in Northern China, has filed for divorce from his wife after he found their newborn child to be “incredibly ugly,” arguing that his wife tricked him into the union by appearing to be a beautiful woman when she was instead ugly.

“I married my wife out of love, but as soon as we had our first daughter, we began having marital issues. Our daughter was incredibly ugly, to the point where it horrified me,” reports gossipwelove.com

Feng, after first accusing his wife of cheating, since the child girl did not look like him, was later confronted by his wife with the bitter truth – cosmetic surgery.

It was an apparent case of false advertising, as it turned out that that his once-beloved had spent over $100,000 in plastic surgery to modify her appearance.

Appalled by the fruit of their loins and by the fact that his wife had never revealed that surgery had enhanced her looks, Feng took the matter to court and won $120,000 in a settlement.

The reaction in social media to the story has largely been in support of Feng.

“When you are in a true relationship, you tell your spouse everything. Past present and future – if not, then you don’t respect them” one male commented on Facebook.

The female audience has also largely sided with Feng. “Of course I would – if you start a relationship with a lie, where does it end?” one woman asked. – RT

It’s a boy!

Some couples want a baby boy badly. So badly they’re willing to fly halfway around the world to get one. Destination? The United States.

Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, director of The Fertility Institutes in Los Angeles and New York City, has for several years offered a fertility procedure allowing affluent couples to choose their baby’s gender. Sex selection, outlawed in many countries, is legal in the United States: Steinberg’s clinics have treated “thousands” of couples from India, China, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and 142 other nations.

Steinberg recently told the London Evening Standard that he’s helped around 400 British couples conceive their choice of a boy or girl. They sometimes pay $45,000 or more for one of Steinberg’s package deals that includes treatment, plane tickets, and a hotel. The doctor opened his New York clinic in 2008 to cater to British and European patients, who are perhaps less than an eight-hour flight away. Sex selection is illegal within the United Kingdom, but Steinberg boasted that “leading British politicians” fly to his New York office for that very purpose.

Steinberg admitted his clinics have recently seen a “huge growth” of Chinese clients. Almost all of them—98 percent—ask for a boy. So do most Indian couples. Both countries ban sex selection, but it’s practiced illegally because of cultural preferences for boys.

Several U.S. clinics perform sex selection using preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD): Doctors obtain the couple’s sperm and eggs, mix them in a dish, and implant only a few embryos of the desired gender. Steinberg typically performs PGD by fertilizing eight or nine eggs and implanting just one embryo, discarding or freezing the others.

In 2009 Steinberg considered allowing parents to choose their child’s eye and hair color, too (see “Eugenics,” March 28, 2009). He nixed the idea after a pro-life outcry.