Commentary on the report on reproductive technologies issued by the UK's House of Commons select committee on science and technology concludes, "the report certainly is radical, but in a positive not a negative sense".
Dr. Ian Gibson, chairman of the UK's House of Commons Science and
Technology Committee, comments on changes needed in the function of the
HFEA, which regulates fertility treatment in the UK. An excerpt from
this excellent article:
The 1990 Act has an infamous clause, which states that "a
woman shall not be provided with treatment services unless account has
been taken of the welfare of any child who may be born as a result of
the treatment (including the need of that child for a father) and of
any other child who may be affected by the birth".
Looking after the welfare of the child sounds like a good thing, but in
effect it enables the state to decide who is a fit parent.
We decided that this was discriminatory.
It means that infertile couples’ lives are scrutinised in a way that
fertile couples would regard as a gross invasion of their privacy.
A report from the UK's Commons Science and Technology Committee advises
that couples undergoing IVF should be allowed to choose their baby's
gender.
561 women being treated for infertility in Chicago responded to a
questionnaire about gender selection. 40% of those women said that they
would like to choose their baby's sex, if it was free. Of those, half
would still want to choose their baby's sex at an additional cost. What
gender did they want? 61% said they would choose a girl.
"One of the fears is that sex selection will drive patients toward a
certain sex. And the presumption is a preference for boys.
But our study did not show that. In fact, in patients who did not have
children there was no greater desire for boys over girls," says Dr.
Tarun Jain, one of the study's authors.
Would you like to choose the sex of your baby, at no extra cost?
41% - Yes
Of those who answered yes,
46% had no previous children
48% had all boys or all girls
6% had at least a boy and a girl
Of those who answered yes, would you be willing to pay extra to choose the sex of your baby?
About 50% - Yes
What method of gender selection would you choose?
55% - Sperm separation
41% - PGD (Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis)
4% - Neither
The assumption that gender selection would mostly be used to choose
boys, perhaps upsetting the gender balance, is often used as an
argument against it. This study is yet another bit of evidence that
there is no basis for this assumption, because
parents prefer girls just as much as boys; Western countries simply do not share the much publicized son preference seen in Asia.
The oft-repeated factoid that most parents would want a boy as a firstborn is refuted here as well.
Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the highest
seat of learning in the Muslim Sunni world, is likely to allow parents
to determine the sex of their would-be child, but under specific and
limited conditions.