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Human Sexuality

Articles

The Blessing of Children

Summer 2012 • Gilbert Meilaender on the curious case for extinction in Why Have Children?

Paid Parenthood

Spring 2012 • Jacqueline Pfeffer Merrill on why people sell their eggs and sperm

Abraham Maslow and the All-American Self

Fall 2011 • Algis Valiunas on why the prophet of self-actualization was more than just a New Age icon

The Last Temptation of Science

Winter 2011 • Algis Valiunas on “Rappaccini’s Daughter” and the crooked path to Paradise

Hiding Behind the Screen

Summer 2010 • Roger Scruton on the risks of friendship and the costs of shirking them

Till Malfunction Do Us Part

Predictions of Robotic Intimacy

Winter 2008 • Caitrin Nicol

The Summer of Love

Summer 2007

The HPV Vaccine Debate

Spring 2007

Love in the Age of Neuroscience

Fall 2005 • Mickey Craig and Jon Fennell on Tom Wolfe’s I Am Charlotte Simmons

Reading the Body

Summer 2005 • Robert W. Jenson

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Blog Posts

The "Wrong" Sexual Orientation?

June 18, 2008 •

A terrific article by Will Saletan on the coming "chemical wars" over sexual orientation:

Last year, Rev. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote: "If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use." Mohler told the Associated Press that morally, this would be no different from curing fetal blindness or any other "medical problem." Rev. Joseph Fessio, editor of the press that publishes the Pope's work, agreed: "Same-sex activity is considered disordered. If there are ways of detecting diseases or disorders of children in the womb ... that respected the dignity of the child and mother, it would be a wonderful advancement of science."

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?

I'd be curious to hear what the "eugenics? what eugenics?" brigade has to say about this. Razib at Gene Expression notes an important caveat.

Ross Douthat's prescient post on the future of homosexuality is well-worth reading too.