LETTERS IN VIEW : Gender Selection Spawns Angry Response

Re “For Many, Picking a Child’s Gender Is a Fertile Field” (Sept. 5): The Neumanns send their four daughters a very clear sexist message when they say that it is the birth of a son that will finally make them feel “completely 100% fulfilled,” or when they admit they probably wouldn’t have had as many children if a boy had been born sooner, or when Gary Neumann expresses his feeling that a boy is required to carry on the family business or even the family name.

How sad that we are still a society that believes “boys are better” and that continues to force sex-role stereotypes on our children. We limit and damage our children when we value them not because of who they are as individuals, but because of the gender they possess. And we put an unhealthy burden on them when we place specific expectations and goals on them simply because of that gender.

A child should be loved and valued not because that child will carry on our lineage, take over the family business, attend our alma mater or meet our ego needs in any other way, but because children are beautiful and special as one-of-a-kind individuals.

AMY LATHEROW

Ventura