Amin A Muhammad Gadit.
Gender selection: is there a growing trend?.
J Pak Med Assoc Jan ;62(7):738-9.

Gender selection is through a procedure that is gaining popularity in the United States of America. This has facilitated a huge number of people not only in America but all over the globe to choose the gender of their future child. It is said that women in Asian countries prefer to have \'boys\', the trend is opposite among western women. Some couples get either boys or girls exclusively with successive pregnancies and hence desire to get at least one child with the preferred gender. The technology is known as \'Microsort\' that separates X-bearing from Y-bearing sperms. There is another controversial technique called \'pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) that uses in vitro fertilization (IVF) to create embryos outside the womb and then to implant only those of the desired gender.1 The W.H.O.2 document on \'Gender and Genetics\' describe three core motivations for sex determination: preventing birth of genetically defective child, couple\'s desire for family balancing or from cultural, social or economic reasons. The said document also noted that in countries like India and China, the practice of sex-selective abortions has resulted in distortions of the natural sex ratio and inappropriate control over non-essential characteristics of children and pose psychological burden and harm to sex-selected offspring. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada issued a policy statement on the issue of gender selection. According to this, there is no support for measures that perpetrate discrimination in sex. It also does not support termination of pregnancy based on gender.3 The concept of Ethics come into play with a number of arguments against avoiding natural selection of gender. Besides this, it is important to keep in view a number of complications that can arise from gender selection technique. With sperm sorting procedure, there is a possibility of implantation of an inferior sperm, development of undesirable traits in selected offspring like: low intelligence, birth defects and even genetic disorders. There is also a possibility of development of gender-identity issues due to interference with natural process and emergence of deeply rooted physical and/or psychological problems with the child.

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