Government to ban gender selection
The Government has announced that parents will not be allowed to choose the sex of their baby unless there are medical reasons to do so.
The decision has come after the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates fertility treatment, yesterday announced that it would recommend a ban on sex selection.
A year-long public consultation suggested 80 per cent of people were against selection unless there were strong medical or genetic reasons such as Haemophilia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy which affect only boys.
The ban will mean that parents cannot chose the sex of their baby for ‘family balancing reasons’, however it will be impossible to stop them travelling abroad to other countries which do permit the process.
HFEA chairwoman, Suzi Leather commented: ‘We have found this a difficult issue and it has taken us a year to reach conclusion. We are mindful of their far-reaching nature. Nevertheless, it is clear that there is a substantial public consensus against sex selection for social reasons.’
The decision is being welcomed by doctors and human rights campaigners who view gender selection as a form of discrimination. The public consultation found that the majority of people thought that parental love should be unconditional whatever the baby’s sex.
In order to chooses the gender of a baby the parents have to undergo fertility treatment, in which the egg and sperm are mixed in a test tube. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) can then establish the sex of embryos, so that only those of the desired gender are placed in the womb.
