UNITED STATES, June 14, 2006: (HPI note: A report from India on June 16 states that several doctors were arrested for sex selection procedures, which is a crime in India. It is a crime in India is to selectively abort a child after determining its gender through ultrasound scans. The process described below involves making a determination at the embryo stage, which is taking place outside the mother. Embryos of the undesired sex are destroyed, or in some cases donated. The next report is on a new method to determine the sex of the child at just five weeks.)
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 its legal–for medical procedures that can give them the boy, or girl, they want. 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. 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, or PGD–is more widely used to screen for genetic diseases.
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. 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. “We are one of those few countries in the world where sex selection using PGD isn’t regulated,” said Susannah Bauch, director of the Reproductive Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University. “It’s certainly a magnet for couples for whom this is important.”