Full text of the paper:
Collected Papers of the Faculty of Law, University of Novi Sad
2019, vol. LIII, No. 2, pp. 581–600
Language of the paper: Serbian
Original scientific paper
udk: 57.089.3:342.7
doi: 10.5937/zrpfns53-21383
Author:
Anđela Đukanović, Ph.D., Research Fellow
Institute of International Politics and Economics
andjela@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs
Abstract:
Despite the troubling data that points to population imbalance, more precisely, increased number of born males in many countries, the issue of sex selection for non-medical reasons was not addressed adequately from the human rights protection perspective. Sex selection is also complex ethical issue. One of the most common arguments used in favor of non-medical sex selection, is that the ban of sex selection will simply limit reproductive freedom. Many supporters of non-medical sex selection defend the practice by relying on the reason of ‘ family balancing’. However, this reason does not seem to be eligible to justify selection. Problem of reproductive tourism is also present, due to the different approaches of the countries in regulating non-medical sex selection. More precisely, people are traveling to countries where respect for individual autonomy plays dominant role. In addition, there is a simple option to send samples for analysis to companies that advertise genetic testing over internet. In the context of human rights protection, only the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine has ban on sex selection for non-medical purposes, however, this ban applies only to specific, less practiced technique of selection. When it comes to other techniques of selection, Article 5 (a) of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women might be helpful to some extent. The issue of non-medical sex selection was in the focus of interest of the United Nations, Council of Europe and European Union to some extent, however insufficiently.
Keywords:
sex selection, human rights, Biomedicine Convention, medically assisted procreation, genetic tests.