More and more couples are using pricey fertility treatments not because they're having trouble conceiving, but because they want to choose their baby's gender, Wall Street Journal reports.
The process, called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, is usually used to test for genetic diseases, but can also be used to determine a baby's sex, and the price tag of up to $15,000 to $20,000 per cycle (and the fact it's not available in many countries outside the U.S. and Mexico yet) doesn't seem to be stopping anyone from getting them.
According to Southern California fertility clinic network HRC Fertility, approximately 1 in 5 couples who come in to their facilities for fertility treatments are getting them specifically so they can choose the sex of their baby.
Daniel Potter, medical director of HRC Fertility, says that much of network's current growth is coming from people who fit this exact description, outweighing same-sex couples and couples with genetic diseases.
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Despite the growing interest in the service, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists ethics committee says they "don't want people to use technology that's really intended to help couples with medical needs for nonmedical reasons," even if there are minimal health risks involved.
Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at New York University School of Medicine, agrees, saying that allowing families fertility treatments so they can only produce the sex of their choice could easily turn into a situation where everyone only wants babies of a particular sex.
Some clinics the Wall Street Journal spoke with said they got more requests for girls than boys while other clinics said the requests were pretty evenly split.
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