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Today it is possible to choose the sex of the embryo
using advanced reproductive techniques during IVF.
Doctors can do this using one of two methods. The first
method is to sort out a sample of the father's sperm
and only fertilise the egg with either 'male' sperm
or 'female' sperm. The second method is Pre-implantation
Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), which is used to
screen-out embryos likely to have a genetic disease.
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Chromosomes
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PGD takes place during IVF where the sperm
fertilises the egg in a "test-tube" in a laboratory.
The fertilised egg grows for a few days before a single cell
is removed and tested to find out either the sex of the embryo
or if abnormal genes are present. Surprisingly, removing one
cell does not seem to affect the embryo's development.
Freezing embryos |
Determining the sex of an embryo
can be useful because some genetic diseases, like haemophilia
and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, only show themselves
in male babies. If the parents have a history of male-related
disease, then techniques such as PGD, can be used.
Doctors then choose a healthy female embryo without the
faulty gene and implant this into the mother's womb to
grow into a healthy baby. |
In most countries sex selection is only permitted to avoid
diseases that are linked to a certain sex. In Britain it is
illegal to select the sex of a child just because the parents
want either a boy or a girl.
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