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Some clinics offer PGD as a bonus for couples already going
through fertility treatments, but a small number are beginning
to provide the option for otherwise healthy couples. Wyoming
resident Sharla Miller and her husband have three boys and
were looking to adopt a baby girl when they read about the
procedure on the Fertility Institutes Web site. They tried it
and she is expecting twin girls in July. "I have three
wonderful boys," Sharla tells Newsweek. "But since there was a
chance I could have a daughter, why not?" TOP
At the Genetics and IVF Clinic (GIVF) in Fairfax, Va., an FDA
clinical trial of a sophisticated sperm-sorting technology
called MicroSort is more than halfway to completion. Through
radio, newspaper and magazine ads ("Do you want to choose the
gender of your next baby?"), the clinic has recruited hundreds
of eager couples, and over 400 babies out of 750 needed for
the trial have been born. The technology works by mixing sperm
with DNA-specific dye. Because X chromosomes are bigger than
Y's, they soak up more dye and glow brighter, distinguishing
them from Y chromosomes.
While the advances have received kudos from grateful families,
they also raise loaded ethical questions about whether science
is finally crossing a line that shouldn't be crossed. Even
fertility specialists are divided over whether choosing a male
or female embryo is acceptable. Dr. David Hill, head of the
ART Reproductive Center in Beverly Hills, where about 5 to 10
percent of patients are requesting PGD solely for sex
selection, says he has no problem offering the procedure, but
respects colleagues who say no. "This is a really new area,"
he says. "It's pretty divided right now as to those who think
it's acceptable and those who don't." TOP
Dr. Mark Hughes, a leading PGD authority at Wayne State
University School of Medicine in Detroit, tells Newsweek, "The
last time I checked, your gender wasn't a disease. There is no
illness, no suffering and no reason for a physician to be
involved. Besides, we're too busy helping desperate couples
with serious disease build healthy families." And at
Northwestern, Dr. Ralph Kazer says bluntly: " 'Gattaca' was a
wonderful movie. That's not what I want to do for a living."
There are no laws against performing gender selection in the
United States. Fertility doctors look to the American Society
of Reproductive Medicine for professional standards. John
Robertson, head of ASRM's ethics committee, says preconception
techniques like MicroSort "would be fine once the safety of
the procedure is established." MicroSort reports that so far,
2.4 percent of its babies have been born with major
malformations, like Down Syndrome, compared with 3 to 4
percent in the general population. As for PGD, the ASRM
currently discourages its use for sex selection, but Robertson
says he wouldn't rule out the possibility that it might become
acceptable in the future. TOP
Also in the cover package, Assistant Editor Mary Carmichael
looks at India, China and South Korea, where sex selection has
been banned in any form, yet the abortion of female fetuses
persists-and where it is not available, infanticide takes its
place. The cultural bias stems largely from the need for
strong boys to do farm labor, but the problem is not limited
to poor, rural areas.
Senior Editor Barbara Kantrowitz reports that for most
families, wanting a child of a certain gender is just one of
many factors that influence couples in deciding to have more
children. More important these days, experts say, is having
money in the bank. According to the Agriculture Department, it
can cost as much as $250,000 for a middle-class married couple
to raise a child to the age of 17, and that doesn't include
college (now about $40,000 per year with room and board at
private institutions).
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