The problem with sex selection

Sex selection is a controversial technology that allows people to select their biological children based on their sex. While NHMRC guidelines recommend against sex selection for non-medical reasons,these guidelines are currently under review, making a debate about this issue even more timely. (Throughout this article I shall use ‘sex selection’ to refer to sex selection for non-medical reasons.) It has been available for some time now and is possible via three methods:

1. sex determination of the fetus followed by abortion if it is an undesired sex;

2. IVF followed by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, where in only embryos of the desired sex are transferred to the uterus of the prospective mother; or

3. sperm sorting/flow cytometry that separates X-bearing sperm from Y-bearing sperm by their slight differences in weight, and uses either the X-enriched or Y-enriched sperm to fertilise the egg

Full text of this paper can be found here