Science moves toward "curing" homosexuality

[MisterMark]

From the article:

If the idea of chemically suppressing homosexuality in the womb horrifies you, I have bad news: You won't be in the room when it happens. Parents control medical decisions, and surveys indicate that the vast majority of them would be upset to learn that their child was gay. Already, millions are screening embryos and fetuses to eliminate those of the "wrong" sex. Do you think they won't screen for the "wrong" sexual orientation, too?

​

The gay culture war is about to turn chemical. - By William Saletan - Slate Magazine

 

[nicenycdick]

Very interesting article. The discussion of the morality of gestational preference manipulation would be a lively one, no doubt. And I don't know that support for it would necessarily follow one's own sexual preference. I would suspect that there are some straight parents who would never seek to interfere with embryonic development simply to assure a hetereosexual child...and likewise, I could imagine that there are some gay men and women who might choose to have their child avoid what may have been, for them, a difficult and torturous path to adulthood.

It is amazing some of the choices science may force (or allow) us to make...

 

[MisterMark]

nicenycdick: Yes, this is a fascinating topic to me. It's an incredible irony for the gay rights movement: With each study that shows evidence that sexual orientation is predisposed or prenatal, we move closer toward finding the cause for sexual orientation, which would then lead to an attempt to control it. Theoretically, homosexuality could someday be eliminated.

 

[Deno]

Or used for population control. It's amazing that this could be considered but embryonic research is tabled.

 

[MisterMark]

Or used for population control. It's amazing that this could be considered but embryonic research is tabled.

Very interesting, Deno. You're right. Unfortunately, I think the societal bias against homosexuality is so strong, it would override even rational thinking about population control.

 

[Mem]

I don't think that it will ever be "cured" or stopped. It is a naturally occurring part of nature. I think it is more than turning off a gene or two.

 

[Jovial]

I am not sure. Nonetheless, I voted "Yes" since there are only two options.

I would definitely support research to find out what determines our sexual preferences. If a "cure" was found it doesn't mean that it would have to be forced on anyone. If it was something that could be done before birth, then I guess it would be up to the parents.

I suppose I would be against it if it could be shown that society/civilization would somehow suffer from not having gay people. Maybe gayness adds a certain amount of stability or something that increases the chance of survival of the human race.

 

[Himura]

For me... I used to want to be straight soooo bad... I would have done anything to have that lifestyle... I think if this kind of "curing" would have come out then... then I probably would have taken it... but now that I'm openly gay... I don't want to be cured.... I tried so hard to be straight... It was impossible... lol.... sex with a woman would be like playing with spaghetti...

I am the way I am... I don't really agree with this now... but I probably would have when I was hating myself....

 

[HazelGod]

Gattaca was remarkably ahead of its time.

If you've never seen it, I suggest you do so ASAP...that's exactly what our future will look like.

 

[Bbucko]

Gattaca was remarkably ahead of its time.

If you've never seen it, I suggest you do so ASAP...that's exactly what our future will look like.

That's one of my favorites. Between the future-as-dystopia plot and Ethan Hawk and Uma Thurman looking fabulously perfect, what's not to love?

 

[Meniscus]

With regards to Gattaca, I always thought there was a vaguely homoerotic subtext between Ethan Hawke's and Jude Law's characters. Loren Dean added some additional eye-candy.

Back in 1991, when I was in college, a friend of mine wrote a short story that was remarkably similar to Gattaca. She later earned her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology and does cancer research now.

 

[simcha]

Yes, Gattaca has it all.