A growing number of British parents are travelling to America for IVF treatment that allows them to choose the sex of their baby.
Increased by a fifth
Dr Daniel Potter, who runs the largest fertility clinic in the West Coast of America, reports that the number of British couples travelling to his clinic for treatment has increased by a fifth every year. Of these parents, only one in five requests a baby girl.
The fertility expert has delivered over 750 babies to UK mothers since 1997 and currently treats around 10 British patients a month. Often, these patients do not need fertility treatment in order to conceive but go through the process in order to select an embryo based on its gender, before it is transferred to the womb.
'Educate on gender selection'
Dr Potter is currently visiting the UK to discuss ‘gender selection’. Speaking about the aims of his trip he said: “I'm here to educate the British public on gender selection, explain the process and address some of the misconceptions surrounding the treatment.
"With more and more of my patients coming from the UK, I wanted to meet people face to face and explain that gender selection is a tested, trusted resource available to families."
Illegal
The practice of gender selection is illegal in the UK under the 1990 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, and its 2008 amendments. It rules that a license to assist in reproduction 'cannot authorise any practice designed to secure that any resulting child will be of one sex rather than the other.' It also forbids 'the testing of embryos for the purpose of establishing their sex.'
Treatment at Dr Potter’s HRC clinic costs around $15,000 and requires a 12-day stay. The clinic even offers a concierge service for travelling patients, enabling them to to combine treatment with “entertainment and sight seeing” for the whole family.
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