The Change Mariner

Gender Selection: The Brave New World of In Vitro Fertilization

MSNBC:

In the course of her Internet research, she stumbled upon a Web site for the Fertility Institutes in Los Angeles, headed by Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, where she learned about an in vitro fertilization technique called preimplantation genetic diagnosis.

By creating embryos outside the womb, then testing them for gender, PGD could guarantee -- with almost 100 percent certainty -- the sex of her baby. Price tag: $18,480, plus travel.

Last November Sharla's eggs and Shane's sperm were mixed in a lab dish, producing 14 healthy embryos, seven male and seven female. Steinberg transferred three of the females into Sharla's uterus, where two implanted successfully. If all goes well, the run of Miller boys will end in July with the arrival of twin baby girls. "I have three wonderful boys," says Sharla, "but since there was a chance I could have a daughter, why not?"
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The brave new world is definitely here. After 25 years of staggering advances in reproductive medicine -- first test-tube babies, then donor eggs and surrogate mothers -- technology is changing baby-making in a whole new way. No longer can science simply help couples have babies, it can help them have the kind of babies they want. Choosing gender may obliterate one of the fundamental mysteries of procreation, but for people who have grown accustomed to taking 3-D ultrasounds of fetuses, learning a baby's sex within weeks of conception and scheduling convenient delivery dates, it's simply the next logical step.

Amazon Price:

Amazon Price: