Sandel Speaks on Bioethics

Bass Professor of Government Michael J. Sandel moved beyond the confines of Sanders Theater to discuss the relationship between bioethics and Judaism with a crowd of about 60 at Harvard Hillel last night.

Sandel distributed copies of Jewish texts explaining the method of conceiving a boy rather than a girl at the beginning of his speech, asking audience members to read from them.

Though he briefly addressed the issues of cloning and stem cell research, Sandel devoted the bulk of his discussion of the ethics behind human genetic engineering to issues surrounding scientific selection of children’s gender.

Sandel outlined several passages from traditional Jewish scripture describing methods for conceiving a male child.

“It has to do with the way you perform sexual intercourse,” he said. “The way is for the man to wait and not come to orgasm until his wife does and then you’ll have a boy.”

Sandel framed the debate about choosing the gender of one’s children in terms of technology available through the Virginia-based corporation Microsort.

The company uses a system of electronic weights to sort sperm according to whether they carry an X or Y chromosome, he said.

Microsort’s technology succeeds in producing a female child 90 percent of the time and a male child 73 percent of the time, according to Sandel.

The Jewish tradition has long allowed for prayers and acts thought to produce the correct conditions for conceiving a male, he said.

Sandel discussed whether these doctrines sanction the more advanced technology of today.

“Is there a point where choosing the sex of our progeny is an act of hubris, where we’re putting ourself in God’s place, or are these passages giving permission?” he asked.

“I’m not saying this is a definitive answer, but insofar as there are resources regarding the Jewish picture of the relation between human beings, God and the cosmos, it is restraint, dignity, strength and limits,” he added.

Sandel is a member of President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics, an 18-person advisory body created last January to discuss moral questions arising from scientific innovation and send its findings to the Oval Office.