Sex selection by preimplantation genetic diagnosis: should it be carried out for social purposes?

View of the ASRM Ethics Committee

John A. Robertson

Chair, Ethics Committee American Society of Reproductive Medicine, Law School, University of Texas, 727 Dean Keeton Street, Austin, Texas, USA e-mail: jrobertson{at}mail.law.utexas.edu

View of the ASRM Ethics Committee

Dear Sir,

The question of non-medical gender selection of offspring through preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and other techniques continues to be highly controversial, as Dr Seif’s letter arguing in favour of non-medical sex selection for ‘family balancing’ as non-eugenic, indicates.

The Ethics Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine initially addressed the issue of PGD for sex selection in 1999, and found that it "should be discouraged" for couples not going through IVF, and "not encouraged" for couples who were, but made no distinction between gender selection of first and subsequent children (American Society of Reproductive Medicine, 1999Go). Subsequently, it found that preconception gender selection would be acceptable for purposes of gender variety but not for the first child because the threat of sexism and gender discrimination is greatly reduced. (American Society of Reproductive Medicine, 2001Go). With regard to PGD for gender variety, the Ethics Committee, clarifying an earlier statement of its Chair, concluded that it had not received enough evidence that a family’s desire for gender variety was so important that it justified creating and destroying embryos for that purpose (Robertson, 2002Go). If such evidence is forthcoming in the future, then PGD for gender variety might also be acceptable.

References

American Society of Reproductive Medicine, Ethics Committee. (1999). Sex selection and preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Fertil. Steril., 72, 595–598.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]

American Society of Reproductive Medicine, Ethics Committee. (2001). Preconception gender selection for nonmedical reasons. Fertil. Steril., 75, 861–864.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]

Robertson, J.A. (2002) Sex selection for gender variety by preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Fertil. Steril., 78, 463.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline]





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