China and India get all the heat for sex-selective abortions because they are so populous that the numbers are bigger, but the second and third most sex-selectively aborting countries, by percentages, are Georgia and Armenia. Both Christian. Both European(ish). This is not just a problem in the 'exotic' East.

I don't think women are rushing out to pay for a non-covered test, but (as I said in my post) I also don't think sex-selective abortions are really a thing here in the States. But they aren't a thing because the cultural/economic pressures in play in other countries are diluted here. The fact is, though, that…

Well...not so fast. I'm not saying sex-selective abortions are a thing in the US, but you can find out the sex as early as 9 weeks now with a blood test known as Materni23. My friends are all getting it because they are "old" mamas (older than 35) and they are finding out the sex at that time as well.

Was your nephew a tiny newborn baby at the time? Or was he maybe more like 5 or 6 months old?

Well, you have to think about the goal of any legal system. I assume the goal is to keep member sof the community safe, and to discourage criminality. This system fails on both counts, so it is a bad system.

Oh, I agree that it's abhorrent. I'm just saying that the concept of blood money is culturally relative. I might think it's a bad system for any number of reasons, but some abstract morality is not one of those reasons.

Morality is relative.

I'm going to let someone else answer the question of Deafness as culture, but I do want to talk a little about the efficacy of implants. They do not restore hearing - certainly not to the extent that a person born with normal hearing would experience the world.

To draw a parallel - let's say that your surgery and…

This! I was surprised to see the CI theme get such a pass when this was going around my FB as an inspiring story of parents who accept their son for who he is. I mean, I understand wanting to improve your child's hearing with implants, if that's possible, but he's still deaf and they don't seem to have many any…

Thanks for answering questions, Kat. I have one more for anyone who knows - if a child identifies and trans and begins hormone blockers, but later decides that he/she is actually cisgender, what are the effects of having been on the blockers? Would such a child develop typically after ending the blockers? Or would…

You're assuming that there is no co-ed option in these schools and that does not appear to be the case. The single-sex classrooms appear to be opt-in and to run alongside co-ed classes. Like schools that have regular curricula running alongside an Emilio Reggio classroom or something.

It's not clear to me, though, that kids are being forced into this program. It seems like it might be voluntary, at least on the part of the parents. So if we assume, for the sake of argument, that parents are relatively in tune with the needs and learning styles of their own children, then letting them choose a…

It's not clear to me from the article whether this program is opt-in. If it is optional, I'm not really bothered by it. Yeah, the pseudoscience is BS, and the perfume thing is terrible, but I'd love to know whether it is actually working in terms of learning outcomes.

Jez seems to have a bee in its bonnet about single-sex education, which bothers me because it ends up discounting the lived experience of many women who feel strongly that single-sex education was a great experience and one that they value and believe is responsible for helping them to become leaders.

That's helpful. Thanks!

Doesn't this seem like a conversation a responsible RE would have BEFORE implanting 7 viable embryos?

"Hey, I'm about to put 7 viable embryos in you. What would you do if all 7 took? Oh, well, then, maybe we'll only implant 2 or 3."

Well, they are in kindergarten, so it isn't as if they are going to have Spanish together. They could easily not be in the same class and have limited contact with each other. Also, I think that a summer worth of therapy could help this kid become less of a menace and hopefully forge new relationships with his peers.

…

The school year's almost over, so I'd say let everyone get a fresh start after a summer of counseling. Five is so very very young, and I feel for this kid. Not because I admire bullies but because I can't imagine what kind of home life would turn a kid that young into such a menace. It must be awful.

I don't think anyone would suggest that the bullied child should just "take it" but a five year-old is so very young to be talking about expulsion. He needs help. The school needs to protect other students. All of this is true, but I refuse to believe that a child that young cannot be reachedl

I think calling for expulsion is exactly the wrong thing to do, actually. Five is terribly, terribly, young. Where would this child go? And what would happen to him at home when he was expelled? There are no alternative programs for preschoolers who are exhibiting a normal stress response to something happening at…