UK debates whether parents can choose babies' sex

[Tiffany]

UK debates whether parents can choose babies' sex

Tue Aug 16, 1:45 PM ET

The right of British parents to use fertility treatment to choose the sex of their children is to be debated by medical experts under a three-month consultation launched by the government on Tuesday.

"We are asking a specific question -- should sex selection play a role in terms of family balancing," said Public Health Minister Caroline Flint.

Current legislation allows sex selection only to avoid gender-linked medical conditions such as haemophilia, a position supported by a public consultation held in 2002 and 2003.

But a parliamentary committee earlier this year reviewed the issue and could find no adequate justification for banning sex selection in cases of family balancing -- for example a family with four sons wishing to have a daughter.

The issue is one of a number to be considered under a review of Britain's 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, designed to bring it up to date with recent medical developments.

Private clinics which provide sperm for single women and lesbian couples will also be considered under the consultation, with Web sites offering donor sperm facing tighter regulation or possible prohibition.

"In all of this debate welfare of children is a very, very important issue," Flint told BBC Radio. "What we are not into is asking questions which somehow put a value on one gender over and above another."

Writing in the foreword to the government's consultation document, Flint said the 1990 act was a "landmark piece of legislation. However, it was never expected that the Act would remain forever unchanged in this area of fast-moving science."

Medical experts and others have until November 25 to submit their responses

SOURCE: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...te_babies_dc_1