[Tman1]

$1:

A former Saskatchewan doctor says some couples from the province have gone to the U.S. to choose the sex of their babies through services that he provides.

Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, in charge of fertility clinics in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, says he offers gender selection services, a practice that is illegal in Canada.

"It's not for everyone. We understand that. It's new and so it's scary."

Steinberg, who worked at the Regina General Hospital for a year, said the process is simple. The clinic harvests eggs from the woman and fertilizes them with sperm from the man. Then it screens the embryos and implants one from the chosen sex.

"We're the closest place where it can be done safely and legitimately and legally," he said.

"Actually, we've seen several, not a lot, but we've seen several from Saskatchewan, and I'm sensitive to that because I worked in Saskatchewan for a year."

A controversial practice

Steinberg said he is aware that his work is controversial. "I've been doing in vitro fertilization from the beginning, and I remember walking out of my office 30 years ago and seeing a note on my windshield that said: 'Test tube babies have no soul.'

"So it was new technology, it was frightening. Now, you go to a party and everybody's got an in vitro baby," he said.

"We think as people become more accustomed to it, the terror associated with it will settle down."

His work, however, has angered doctors in Saskatchewan.

Dr. Roger Pierson, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, said Canadian medical societies believe gender selection is a form of discrimination.

"Both males and females have equal value in society and we're dealing with a social and a legal issue. We're not dealing with a medical issue."

Pierson says the only time doctors in Canada can legally screen for the sex of an embryo is when there is a hereditary disease linked to a specific sex.

According to a report by Agence France-Presse, the treatment is believed to cost about $19,000 US and couples from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Germany, Britain and Canada seek out the service.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/cbc/s/06072006 ... octor.html

[MrMagicMan]

Nay.

[Tman1]

I chose nay as well but would something like this be good for already established families that seemingly have a majority of one sex instead of the other? For an example a mother so desperately wishing for a little girl in a family of males.

Although some good things might become of it, it still creates the possibility of an imbalance of sex ratio in the world. I say the choice of genetics is wrong and sets the standard of building a human being like some toy. Playing God if you will.

[ShepherdsDog]

Í choose a healthy baby

[Tman1]

I guess all that male testosterone in the house can drive one to a path down the dark side.

[Wada]

My sister and her husband chose the sex of their two children and did it au natural. Something to do with her ovulation period and penetration depth. I did not ask for details but it worked just fine.

[MissT]

Apparently something to do with the pH of the vagina at certain phases, being more amenable to male sperm or female sperm... (Sorry, you just said you didn't want to ask, but I just had to share my almost-forgotten biology lesson from high school many many years ago.)

[MissT]

Nah but I think that the cases where families have all boys or all girls, then there may be some factors which influence which sperm are getting there.

For example, with crocodiles, in hotter weather more males are born.

[Blue_Nose]

A lot of people don't realize that it's no stretch of logic to apply crocodile physiology to humans.

[MissT]

A lot of people don't realise that it can be hard to tell if one is being sarcastic or not on internet forums.

[Tman1]

Blue_Nose is never sarcastic. He's all asshole.

[MissT]

So you doubt my logic?

For the assholes and sceptics here then, I was just trying to emphasise that environment (such as the pH) can have an effect on the success of the sperm. Also, apparently male sperm travel faster than female, so it can be possible to (in a lab) collect the faster or slower ones according to the sex you want, and increase your chances of being able to choose.

[Blue_Nose]

Back to the topic, since parents choose when/where to have a child, and virtually everything for them after they're born, why is choosing a sex a big deal? I couldn't imagine growing up without a sister - can anyone dig up a study on the effect of gender in siblings?

[Blue_Nose]

lily lily:

The only time they sort the sperm is to weed out the ones of lesser quality, using a centrifuge.

Talk about shaken baby syndrome.

[ShepherdsDog]

Wada Wada:

My sister and her husband chose the sex of their two children and did it au natural. Something to do with her ovulation period and penetration depth. I did not ask for details but it worked just fine.

Oh and I supposed they took the lunar phase into consideration, as well as the position of the stars too? That's all a crock, as human fetuses are gender neutral up until about 1 1/2 to 2 mnths of development. It's only then that the gonads develop into ovaries or testes. because the X or Y from the father kicks in to determine whether a boy or a girl develops.