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Sex-selection, and “Shut up, Chavez!”
The whole gang is back from vacation.
Embryonic sex-selection.
Penn and Emily didn’t choose the sex of their first child, though they should have.
Nut point of view: Let people do what they want.
Chavez calling Bush “the devil”. Rep Rangel of New York: Only Americans can criticize our president.
Goudeau: Immigrants taking jobs away from us! It’s our job to call the president names!
Caller Julie: It’s more exciting to find out sex of baby by chance. Penn: It’s a pot-shoot. Julie’s mom had five boys before having one girl. If she could have chosen, she probably would have had a girl sooner.
Survey confirms that more Americans want “designer babies”. IVF is not a risk-free technique. Published in Medical Journal of Fertility and Sterility. Penn: Good name for an act.
Caller Garfield: Chavez has some grapefruits (and is an idiot) to come to our country and diss the president.
Goudeau: Have a nation-wide “shut up!” moment for Chavez.
Caller Grey Wolf: American indian. Likes Chavez. He gives discounted oil to indian reservations. Penn: Giving you stuff doesn’t make him morally right.
Penn: We’ve got Sean Penn to insult the president.
Technically, Chavez wasn’t on American soil.
<break>
Mike Jones is on the cover of Las Vegas Weekly this week. Most talented piano player in the world today. (Note: This week’s issue isn’t up on their website, yet).
Caller Pam: Sonagrapher. No problem with choosing sex of baby, as long as they choose the healthiest embryo. People place too much importance on sex of baby. Penn and Emily had a rule not to do that. If people really annoy her, she says she can’t tell the sex even if she knows.
Goudeau: People don’t have any concept that something could be wrong with their baby.
Patients are more guarded with Pam because she doesn’t have kids. Penn wonders if she’s reading them wrong. She insists.
No diagnostic need for a 3-D picture.
If mom doesn’t want to know sex, nobody gets to know.
Penn asks if she’s ever seen a hermaphrodite.
<break>
Penn plugs Penn Jillette MySpace group.
G-mail Emily Jillette: Remembers husband at IVF clinic who only wanted a male, and refused to save any female embryos.
Caller Alan: Designer babies are an unnecessary science. Slippery slope. Too many males in China.
Penn: The problem with that was limiting the number of children. Freedom is always the answer. Good research comes out of it.
Alan: The natural way is better.
Penn: That includes horrible disease. The only slippery slope is loss of freedom.
Caller Sal: Sounds like 1984. Why don’t we take care of kids in foster homes first?
Penn points out Goudeau has two adopted children.
Caller Brendon: If eugenics is regulated by the government, there’s nothing wrong with it at all. Parents would only choose positive traits. Theft and murder can be passed down genetically.
Penn: Even finding a single trait for eye color is very, very difficult. People are imagining we can do way more than we actually can.
Penn: Technology is always good.
Caller Roy: Was too afraid to choose sex of child via IVF. Penn, too.
Tomorrow: Dennis Miller. Penn excited.