Sex selection, or deciding the sex of their children, is something many parents often long for. In some cultures, males are more highly valued than females, and sex selection has been practiced to ensure that offspring will be male. Under normal circumstances, the chance of any child being a particular sex is logically around 50 per cent. Yet some physicians continue to recommend the consumption of particular foods, the use of various vaginal douches, the timing of intercourse in relation to ovulation (which isn’t totally incorrect), sexual positions (unlikely, but it could be fun trying) and sperm sorting.
There is no evidence that these methods significantly alter the ratio of male to female births. The only reliable methods for selecting sex are limited to post-fertilisation techniques. Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) using In Vitro Fertilisation (or IVF) are the most reliable ways of influencing the sex of your baby.
During IVF, eggs are removed from the mother and introduced to the sperm of the father in a laboratory. If the couple wants their child to be a particular gender, a cell is taken from each embryo three days after fertilisation, and the DNA and chromosomes are analysed. Only the embryos of the desired sex are subsequently planted back in the mother's womb.
There are medical reasons for sex selection that are considered ethical, including the prevention of serious sex-linked genetic disorders such as haemophilia or Duchene’s muscular dystrophy, that only affects boys. Many physicians' groups are opposed to the use of sex selection for non-medical reasons. Helping patients choose the sex of their offspring to avoid serious sex-linked genetic disorders is considered ethical by doctors, but participating in sex selection for personal and family reasons, such as family balancing, is not, according to the opinion issued by the Committee on Ethics of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Sex selection is legal in most of the world, and it is practiced particularly in Western countries, but is more limited in Eastern countries, such as India or China. Many European countries and Canada have banned sex selection in cases unrelated to any health purpose for some of the same concerns.
Sex selection has been with us for centuries and it’s unlikely to disappear overnight. While there are many sound reasons for wishing to select the sex of a child, it’s often seen as a moral minefield. It’s a procedure that should only be considered after much forethought. Like so many medical advances, it’s a field that’s open to abuse, but one that can also do much good.
