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[sundubuman]

It's a boy! If you want a boy

By Carla K. Johnson
Associated Press
Published June 15, 2006

The Chinese want boys, and the Canadians want girls. If they have enough money, they come to the United States to choose the sex of their babies.

Well-off foreign couples are getting around laws banning sex selection in their home countries by coming to American soil, where it's legal, for medical procedures that can give them the boy or girl they want.

"Some people spend $50,000 to $70,000 for a BMW car and think nothing of it, but this is a life that's going to be with us forever," said Robert, an Australian who asked that his last name not be used to protect the family's privacy.

He and his wife, Joanna, have two boys. Now they want a girl. Australia allows gender selection of embryos only to avoid an inherited disease.

The United States' lack of regulation means a growing global market for a few fertility clinics. These businesses advertise in airline magazines or post Web sites aimed at luring clients worldwide.

Opponents say this amounts to medical tourism for designer babies and should awaken lawmakers.

But one doctor who offers embryo selection for about $20,000 says he is serving the marketplace and helping nature, not playing God. People will be less alarmed as sex selection becomes more routine, said Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg of the Fertility Institutes of Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

"It's new. It's scary. We understand that," Steinberg said. His Web site features an image of a Chinese flag alongside information about sex selection. "Near 100 percent (99.99 percent) effective gender selection methods to help balance families," the Web site promises.

"We basically want them to know it's available," Steinberg said of the international push. The Web page on sex selection generates 140,000 hits a month from China, he said, and the only country outpacing China's interest is Canada.

Patients come from all over

In a recent week, his clinics performed the procedure on eight women from abroad and consulted with 12 new foreign patients from China, Germany, Canada, the Czech Republic, Guam, Mexico and New Zealand, he said.

Most couples are affluent, Steinberg said. But some, like Australians Robert and Joanna, have moderate incomes. Robert, 30, works as a construction supervisor and Joanna, 27, is a part-time secretary.

The couple visited Steinberg's Los Angeles clinic in May and, including airfare, will spend half their annual income to have a female embryo implanted in Joanna's uterus.

The procedure, which Steinberg also offers as an add-on service for infertile couples, determines the gender of a batch of fertilized eggs and implants only embryos of the wanted sex. This process--called preimplantation genetic diagnosis--is more widely used to screen for genetic diseases.

"The Chinese like boys. Canadians like girls. Every country is different," he said, adding that the boy-girl preference balances out at 50-50 when all his clients are added together.

Foes call it "consumer eugenics" and say it opens the door to a future where parents will choose their babies' hair color, eye color and potential to grow tall enough to play basketball. U.S. doctors are catering to the same gender bias that has led to female infanticide in China and India, opponents said.

"What you're saying is it's better you don't exist than be the wrong gender for my family. And that's a shocking assertion," said Matthew Eppinette, director of research at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, a Christian bioethics group.

Controversial use

The method can prevent sex-linked inherited diseases. But when it's used solely to help a couple get a coveted girl or round out a family of daughters with a wanted son, the practice is controversial, even among doctors who specialize in reproductive medicine.

"We don't do that. Sex is not a disease," snapped Yuri Verlinsky, director of the Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine says sex selection of embryos is clearly ethical when the method is used to prevent genetic disease. But the professional group discourages its use for choosing one gender over another. The group says the practice risks reinforcing sexism in society and diverts medical resources from real medical needs.

While many countries prohibit sex selection techniques without a medical purpose, the United States has no such ban.

Another group, the Center for Genetics and Society, is calling for regulation of the practice and its marketing.

"Right now the market is driving practices rather than social and ethical concerns," said Sujatha Jesudason of the center. "People who have money to pay for it are getting the children of their choice."

The Australians, Robert and Joanna, see gender selection as no different ethically and morally from in vitro fertilization for infertile couples. They reject the term "designer babies."

"It's not like we want some 6-foot-tall, blue-eyed Brad Pitt lookalike," Robert said. "I naturally have something and my wife naturally has something and it's taken out of our bodies and then you're getting a doctor to mix it together and put it back in. ... We're not messing around with God the creator."

- - -

Sex selection bans

The United States allows the selection of embryos based on sex. Here are some other nations' laws on sex selection:

- Banned, with no exceptions: Austria

- Banned, except for medical reasons: Germany, Switzerland

- Banned, except to avoid hereditary gender-related disorders: Australia, Canada, France, India, Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom

Source: Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University.

[RachaelRoo]

Wouldn't it prevent infanticide in some places? If Chinese culture does not value girls, let's wait 40 or 50 years when boys outnumber girls 2:1 and see if that helps to change things.

Who is the government to tell people it's okay to have an abortion - but only for politically correct reasons? Our bodies our choice, right? If one accepts that abortion is not immoral, than I don't see why abortion for gender selection is immoral.

[sundubuman]

I guess you are correct Rachel.......if you are right, I'm not able to say.

[Kuros]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Kuros]