http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2005-03-11-1

Wikinews
3/11/2005 1:26 PM


Many infertile American women would choose the sex of their next child if
given the option.

A survey of 561 women being treated for infertility found that 41% would use
sex selection if it were offered at no cost.

Contradicting fears that such sex selection would cause gender imbalance,
the survey found that women with no children would choose baby girls and
boys in approximately equal numbers.

Furthermore, women with only daughters wanted to select a male child while
women with only sons wanted to select a female child.

"Sex selection is a topic that's almost taboo for physicians to talk
about,"
says study lead author Tarun Jain of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"Prior to this study, there has been no data to indicate what the demand
might be."

Controversial practice

Of 561 survey respondents, 229 would want to select the sex of their future
child.

Among these, 45% had no children and 48% had children of all the same sex.

Half would choose to select the sex of their next child even if they had to
bear the cost.

About 55% would choose sperm separation, 41% would choose preimplantation
genetic diagnosis and 4% would choose neither.

Sex selection is controversial. The American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists opposes it for nonmedical reasons and so does the
International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

The American Society of Reproductive Medicine supports it for nonmedical
reasons for family gender balancing provided methods used are safe and
effective.

"As the techniques gain more popularity, physicians will have to decide if
they will offer the procedure to patients with and without children," says
Jain.

The research is reported in the journal Fertility and Sterility (read
abstract).


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