GA IN 

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An expectant pause.

“Will nothing I do or say change your mind?”

“Maybe it’s true that one needs religion to be moral.”

“Answer the question, Ga In-ah.”

“I don’t think anything you would do will change my mind. But there exists things you can do to change my mind.”

Of course, the short list of things is purely coercive, and I would not want to be on the receiving end of such treatment.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

While I cannot say that I expected otherwise, this isn’t going all too well. There definitely exists a divergence of opinion there—that’s unfamiliar, nearly foreign ground for us because we’re exceedingly similar on most things.

“What do you think of the other option, you know, the unfertilized egg, analysis of the first polar body?”
“If it’s you, I can do it.”

Kwonnie frowns, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Wouldn’t put myself through that if you weren’t worth it. Or if I love you less,” I shrug, “But because you’re Kwonnie, I can do it.”

“Even if it’s overseas?”

I wonder if he’s doubting me, “Yeah.”

“You know it’s stressful and a long drawn process right? Especially away from home.”

“I would know before making such a statement. You should know that.”

“You don’t have any issues with it?”

“Let me guess, you think it’s playing God. Eugenics, and social acceptability issues.”

Kwonnie smiles, “It turns out that you’ve already figured out my point of view without needing me to say it.”

“I could hazard a guess that for infertile couples, you actually have not much of a problem with IVF. They don’t have many other options. Yes, the embryologist does choose the best looking embryos to implant, but non-viable embryos will be discarded by nature either way.”

“Why don’t you just continue?” Kwonnie flops down, placing his head on my lap.

I run my fingers through his hair, “The problem arises in that if we so choose to screen the unfertilized eggs for Thalassemia. In nature, if there aren’t any other issues, it is very possibly viable. In that sense, when you reject eggs that are unlikely to be rejected b