The idea of sex selection can mean different things in different societies, but when modern physicians talk about this idea during consultation on fertility, they are referring to specific scientific processes for determining the gender of an embryo or otherwise affecting the outcome of the gender of a pregnancy. This kind of process is a fairly uncertain one, where doctors and medical experts attempts to influence an innately uncertain situation according to the desires of patients. There’s also a lot of controversy over whether sex selection should be part of a service for a medical facility or fertility clinic.
How Does Sex Selection Work?
One kind of sex selection that medical professionals might use before implantation is a manipulation of the actual sperm involved in an IVF or in vitro fertilization process. In a method called “flow cytometry” the sperm is actually mechanically influenced in order to change the attachments of X or Y chromosomes.
The other side of this method seems relatively straightforward. It’s commonly called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis or PGD. In this process, it’s the embryo that is assessed for gender prior to implantation. PGD involves more than gender selection, and some aspects of embryo observation just help to build a better outcome for the average IVF process. As more and more tools become available to clinics and medical providers, public administration and government officials continue to look at how to regulate the services and treatments provided.
Sex Identification after Implantation
After implantation, or during the course of a normal pregnancy, medical professionals can now use an ultrasound or amniocentesis to figure out the gender of a fetus. There’s no way to change the gender at this stage, but parents can be sure of what gender of baby will be born. Parents may or may not choose to be informed about the gender of the baby before birth.
Sex Selection and Responses
Some critics of the new medical processes for sex selection see the method as a “slippery slope” that may lead to other kinds of selection, where the abilities of fertility science may affect social norms in unwanted ways. Human rights advocates point to classic selection sciences called “eugenics” that have been disavowed by most modern societies as discriminatory and socially harmful. However, others see sex selection as a natural part of an IVF procedure that also works to select the most viable embryos for a pregnancy. Medical sex selection is illegal in some countries where it may contribute to harmful selection practices.
It’s a shock to some people that modern science can actually help to determine the gender of a child, but the actual medical method behind this practice is fairly simple. Since fertility doctors have become able to manipulate both the sperm and the embryo for a variety of reasons, sex selection is something that has become pretty feasible for scientists already dealing with sorting and assessing embryos.
