THE SCIENCE: It's the latest craze in the fertility world - people are choosing the sex of their children. Though many at-home methods to get a boy or girl have been tried, there is no science behind those methods to support them. But it is possible now -- with a little help from the science lab. 

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) was developed as a way to separate healthy and unhealthy embryos. A woman going through in vitro fertilization can have her embryos tested before they're implanted, thus reducing the risk of having a baby with any number of genetic diseases. While doctors use PGD to carefully select healthy embryos, they can also use it to carefully select the sex of those embryos. Doctors can determine if an embryo is male or female by extracting and testing a single cell from an embryo. Jeffrey Steinberg, M.D., from The Fertility Institutes, says, "If they want a boy, we give them only boys and if they want a girl, we give them only girls. In thousands of cases, we've never been wrong." Gender selection for non-medical reasons is illegal in many countries, including , the , , and . In the , it is legal as a way to "balance families." 

THE ARGUMENT AGAINST IT: Ken Goodman, Ph.D., a philosopher from the University of Miami , says gender selection is a disturbing trend. Of those who do it, he says, "They are basically saying that they want to use the science now of gender selection to discriminate against half of civilization, half of the people on Earth." He says, barring sex-linked genetic diseases, there doesn't seem to be a good enough reason to choose either a boy or girl to justify it. He says, "'Just because I wanted a girl for a change' seems like we're treating reproduction as a source of entertainment, amusement, variety -- I don't think most people would like to say that's why they are reproducing." Dr. Steinberg says, 30 years ago, many people had ethical arguments against IVF, which is now offered across the country to help infertile couples. Dr. Steinberg says, "I've been doing in vitro fertilization for 30 years. I remember walking out of my office one afternoon and finding a note on my windshield 30 years ago that said 'test tube babies have no soul'. It was new. It was scary, but like most things, with time and with experience and with trust, people come to accept it. We shouldn't impose ourselves on other people's decisions. If they've got a problem with it, stay away from it." 

SHOULD YOU -- WOULD YOU? Tarun Jain, M.D., from the University of Illinois at Chicago has researched the topic of gender selection extensively. His findings show though they have the option, most Americans don't want to choose the sex of their children. Less than 18 percent of the general population surveyed would take advantage of medical technology to ensure a boy or girl. However, when that same question was asked of women who were already receiving in vitro fertilization, 41 percent said they would select the sex of their child. There doesn't seem to be a bias for one sex over the other. Various studies show different preferences. In one of Dr. Jain's studies, 39 percent of those surveyed preferred a boy, 19 percent preferred a girl and 42 percent had no preference. Yet in another study of his, 38 percent of those who would consider gender selection wanted a boy, while 61 percent wanted a girl.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

For Jeffrey Steinberg, M.D.                                              For Tarun Jain, M.D.

The Fertility Institutes                                                     Sherri McGinnis Gonzalez

(800) 222-2802                                                    University of Illinois at Chicago

TZFertility@aol.com                                                         (312) 996-8277            

http://www.fertility-docs.com                                         cmartin331@comcast.net

                                                                             http://www.uic.edu