The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
06-15-2006
Sex-selection clinics draw wealthy couples to U.S. -- Most other countries ban procedure
By CARLA K. JOHNSON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Date: 06-15-2006, Thursday
Section: NEWS
Edtion: All Editions
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 it's legal — for medical procedures that can give them the boy, or girl, they want.
"Some people spend $50,000 to $70,000 for a BMW car and think nothing of it, but this is a life that's going to be with us forever," said Robert, an Australian who asked that his last name be withheld to protect the family's privacy.
He and his wife, Joanna, have two boys. Now they want a girl. Australia allows gender selection of embryos only to avoid an inherited disease.
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 drawing 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.
"It's new. It's scary. We understand that," Steinberg said. "Near 100 percent (99.99 percent) effective gender selection methods to help balance families," his Web site promises.
"We basically want them to know it's available," Steinberg said of the international push. His Web site generates 140,000 hits a month from China, he said, and the only country outpacing China is Canada.
In a recent week, his clinics performed the procedure on eight women from abroad and consulted with 12 new foreign patients from China, Germany, Canada, the Czech Republic, Guam, Mexico and New Zealand, he said.
Most couples are affluent, Steinberg said. But some, like Australians Robert and Joanna, have moderate incomes. Robert, 30, works as a construction supervisor and Joanna, 27, is a part-time secretary.
The couple visited Steinberg's Los Angeles clinic in May and, including airfare, will spend half their annual income to have a female embryo implanted in Joanna's uterus.
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.
"The Chinese like boys. Canadians like girls. Every country is different," he said, adding that the boy-girl preference balances out at 50-50 when all his clients are added together.
Foes call it "consumer eugenics."
"What you're saying is it's better you don't exist than be the wrong gender for my family. And that's a shocking assertion," said Matthew Eppinette, director of research at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, a Christian bioethics group.
The Australians, Robert and Joanna, see gender selection as no different ethically and morally from in vitro fertilization for infertile couples. They reject the term "designer babies."
"It's not like we want some 6-foot-tall, blue-eyed Brad Pitt lookalike," Robert said. "I naturally have something and my wife naturally has something and it's taken out of our bodies and then you're getting a doctor to mix it together and put it back in. ... We're not messing around with God the creator."
***
(SIDEBAR)
Which countries enforce ban
Among most industrialized nations, the United States alone allows the selection of embryos based on sex, regardless of parents' reasons. How other countries surveyed handle embryo sex selection:
Banned, with no exceptions: Austria
Banned except for medical reasons: Germany, Switzerland
Banned except to avoid hereditary gender-related disorders: Australia, Canada, France, India, Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom
SOURCE: Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University
***
Illustrations/Photos: PHOTO - ASSOCIATED PRESS - Dr. Jeffery Steinberg's clinic offers sex selection of babies and draws clients from places that ban the process. Julia Vuille, right, translates.
Keywords: BABY, CLINIC, USA
Copyright 2006 Bergen Record Corp. All rights reserved.
Sex-selection clinics draw wealthy couples to U.S.CARLA K. JOHNSON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
06-15-2006
Sex-selection clinics draw wealthy couples to U.S. -- Most other countries ban procedure
By CARLA K. JOHNSON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Date: 06-15-2006, Thursday
Section: NEWS
Edtion: All Editions
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 it's legal — for medical procedures that can give them the boy, or girl, they want.
"Some people spend $50,000 to $70,000 for a BMW car and think nothing of it, but this is a life that's going to be with us forever," said Robert, an Australian who asked that his last name be withheld to protect the family's privacy.
He and his wife, Joanna, have two boys. Now they want a girl. Australia allows gender selection of embryos only to avoid an inherited disease.
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 drawing 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.
"It's new. It's scary. We understand that," Steinberg said. "Near 100 percent (99.99 percent) effective gender selection methods to help balance families," his Web site promises.
"We basically want them to know it's available," Steinberg said of the international push. His Web site generates 140,000 hits a month from China, he said, and the only country outpacing China is Canada.
In a recent week, his clinics performed the procedure on eight women from abroad and consulted with 12 new foreign patients from China, Germany, Canada, the Czech Republic, Guam, Mexico and New Zealand, he said.
Most couples are affluent, Steinberg said. But some, like Australians Robert and Joanna, have moderate incomes. Robert, 30, works as a construction supervisor and Joanna, 27, is a part-time secretary.
The couple visited Steinberg's Los Angeles clinic in May and, including airfare, will spend half their annual income to have a female embryo implanted in Joanna's uterus.
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.
"The Chinese like boys. Canadians like girls. Every country is different," he said, adding that the boy-girl preference balances out at 50-50 when all his clients are added together.
Foes call it "consumer eugenics."
"What you're saying is it's better you don't exist than be the wrong gender for my family. And that's a shocking assertion," said Matthew Eppinette, director of research at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, a Christian bioethics group.
The Australians, Robert and Joanna, see gender selection as no different ethically and morally from in vitro fertilization for infertile couples. They reject the term "designer babies."
"It's not like we want some 6-foot-tall, blue-eyed Brad Pitt lookalike," Robert said. "I naturally have something and my wife naturally has something and it's taken out of our bodies and then you're getting a doctor to mix it together and put it back in. ... We're not messing around with God the creator."
***
(SIDEBAR)
Which countries enforce ban
Among most industrialized nations, the United States alone allows the selection of embryos based on sex, regardless of parents' reasons. How other countries surveyed handle embryo sex selection:
Banned, with no exceptions: Austria
Banned except for medical reasons: Germany, Switzerland
Banned except to avoid hereditary gender-related disorders: Australia, Canada, France, India, Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom
SOURCE: Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University
***
Illustrations/Photos: PHOTO - ASSOCIATED PRESS - Dr. Jeffery Steinberg's clinic offers sex selection of babies and draws clients from places that ban the process. Julia Vuille, right, translates.
Keywords: BABY, CLINIC, USA
Copyright 2006 Bergen Record Corp. All rights reserved.
Thank you so much for the information on gender selection natural process by step. I was looking for these information for my sister who is planning to get pregnant with this method. But she was not that confident enough to go for it.
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