Gender Selection: Is it safe?

[Christian]

The Fertility Institutes

According to these folks, the process is 99% effective and safe.


Any thoughts on this? I'm not only asking out of curiousity. My wife and I are thinking about this possibility. So, if anyone can shed some serious thoughts, I would very much appreciate it.

 

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Why don't you let god decide?

 

[Christian]

Why don't you let god decide?

He already has.

 

[Rob Lister]

The Fertility Institutes

According to these folks, the process is 99% effective and safe.


Any thoughts on this? I'm not only asking out of curiousity. My wife and I are thinking about this possibility. So, if anyone can shed some serious thoughts, I would very much appreciate it.

I have no opinion as to the safety.

I am skeptical as to the source.

I would also suggest that the technology, if valid, and if affordable, and if legal, could be a political/social bombshell. In some cultures/countries, giving birth to a girl is a bad thing. In others, it is (sometimes) a death warrant.

 

[tracer]

I am skeptical as to the source.

Considering that the webpage starts with the following:

"This Web site has been featured on 60 Minutes II, and over 28 additional national and international news and information sources including the cover story of Newsweek magazine, major newspapers, magazines and medical reporting services."

... I don't blame you. That's the kind of vague self-promotion that screams "I don't have any scientific verification for my claims, but I've been on TV, so they must be true!"


The main webpage linked to from the page in the OP, at http://www.fertility-docs.com/fertility_gender.phtml, further states that:

"The first method provides virtually a 100% assurance (guarantee) that a resulting birth will be of the gender selected."

Here, they give themselves an out. If you use their services and your baby comes out the wrong gender, they'll give you your money back. That means that even if their tenchique is totally bogus, they'll get to keep your money half the time!

 

[Johnny Pneumatic]

He already has.

How? Have you already had sex?

 

[Rolfe]

I know that it's possible to separate bull sperm into X and Y fractions with quite a high degree of reliability (though not 99%). It's done very routinely in cattle husbandry, where obviously more females are required to become the next generation of milkers, but occasionally a cow is so outstanding that the decision is taken to breed a bull from her.

It's a fairly straightforward flow cytometry operation, and then of course insemination is by AI.

I'm just surprised this isn't a more prominent idea in human reproductive medicine, because like it or not, you can't uninvent technology.

Rolfe.

Besides, if they select for male children almost exclusively in one generation, that's one helluva good population control mechanism for the next generation....

 

[Christian]

Here, they give themselves an out. If you use their services and your baby comes out the wrong gender, they'll give you your money back. That means that even if their tenchique is totally bogus, they'll get to keep your money half the time!

This is an interesting comment.

Originally posted by bewareofdogmas

How? Have you already had sex?

Oh, you really want a phylo discussion on this. Ok, the short answer. I hope I make my point. My comment is like saying that God has already decided that July 28 will be a Wednesday in my country. If the technology is available in my time and I can pay for it, then that tells me He has decided I can do it.

Not the case 200 years ago.

Why would I want to walk to a place if I can drive to it.

Originally posted by Rolfe

I'm just surprised this isn't a more prominent idea in human reproductive medicine, because like it or not, you can't uninvent technology.

Thanks, that's good info.

 

[Goshawk]

Oh, you really want a phylo discussion on this.

Er, no, actually, we don't. The Politics and Religion Forum is the place for a philosophical discussion of the ethics of gender selection.


*****************


I don't see how "Is it safe?" could refer to pre-fertilization sperm sorting, so I have not addressed it. I'm assuming you're talking about embryo biopsy.

I presume when you're asking, "Is it safe?" you mean, "Is it safe for the embryo to have cells removed from it?"


Here are two sites that discuss the procedure.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_pgd.htm
http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic3520.htm

The E-Medicine article refers to only 700 surviving (successfully born) children who have had this done so far, and the procedure itself is comparatively new. Thus, I would assume that it's really too soon to tell whether it's harmful to a human being to have one or two cells removed from it while it's still in the 8-cell blastocyst stage.

As for whether the OP's link's quoted 99.9% success rate for embryo biopsy can be true--I don't see why not. Many of the genetic disorders embryo biopsy is being used to screen for are sex-linked disorders, like hemophilia, so they must be able to tell, and it seems like kind of a no-brainer to simply check whether the cell in question has X or Y chromosomes.

Bear in mind that this procedure is not cheap, but if you're already spending the bucks for IVF, I suppose you wouldn't stick at spending a bit more to at least get the desired gender. "In for a penny, in for a pound", etc.

 

[Goshawk]

...you were aware that your link is dealing with IVF and pre-implantation genetic screening, yes? Not with pre-natal gender screening of a viable fetus. If that's what you're talking about, then you'll need to clarify that.

 

[Kumar]

Acid/base link

Is there any ACID/BASE link to this choice??? Do the acidic ladies gets more females?

 

[Chris Haynes]

Re: Acid/base link

Is there any ACID/BASE link to this choice??? Do the acidic ladies gets more females?

I am sure you are joking.

But the latest I have heard that there are families who have used the difference in weight in the X and Y sperm to try for a female child... since they are from families that have disabilities that occur more often in their male children.

 

[Kumar]

Re: Re: Acid/base link

I am sure you are joking.

But the latest I have heard that there are families who have used the difference in weight in the X and Y sperm to try for a female child... since they are from families that have disabilities that occur more often in their male children.

HC, I am not joking. I can't joke in creations. I bit senstive in nature's natural system & just whisper.

 

[Rob Lister]

Besides, if they select for male children almost exclusively in one generation, that's one helluva good population control mechanism for the next generation....

Especially when that mostly-male generation start looking -- and competing -- for sex.

 

[Goshawk]

Re: Acid/base link

Is there any ACID/BASE link to this choice??? Do the acidic ladies gets more females?

I presume that you already know the answer to this, as controlling the acidity of the vagina is indeed a proposed method of sperm selection, and that you are once again just trolling here.


Look up the word "disingenous" in your Bartleby.

 

[Rolfe]

Especially when that mostly-male generation start looking -- and competing -- for sex.

Whether they kill and maim each other or just confine themselves to dirty looks, doesn't even matter. The number of children in the generation after that will be the number of children borne by the females of their generation. Full stop. And the number of children per adult woman is going down every decade, and doesn't seem to have any relationship to how many spare males there are kicking around....

Rolfe.

 

[Christian]

...you were aware that your link is dealing with IVF and pre-implantation genetic screening, yes? Not with pre-natal gender screening of a viable fetus. If that's what you're talking about, then you'll need to clarify that.

I was aware of that, but isn't the same technology offered for gender selection too?

Sorry for the late, late response.

 

[Goshawk]

Right, as I already said:

Many of the genetic disorders embryo biopsy is being used to screen for are sex-linked disorders, like hemophilia, so...it seems like kind of a no-brainer to simply check whether the cell in question has X or Y chromosomes.

 

[Christian]

Right, as I already said:

Yes, thanks, I got that. I thought there was something else you wanted to point out besides that.

Your input has been great, I appreciate it. To get a boy, I need to fess up $25,000.00+ according to them.


I'm not sure I want to do that.


I thinking God would have a good laugh telling me, why pay that if I can do it for free.