Quick Govt IVF choice not likely

Do not expect a speedy Government decision about whether parents of children conceived by invitro fertilisation should have the right to choose the sex of their babies, was the message from two University of Otago academics yesterday.

They were commenting on the Bioethics Council report Who Gets Born? released this week which will recommend to the Government that there is insufficient reason to ban the use of sex selection for social reasons such as balancing the sexes in a family.

Human Genome Research Project director Prof Mark Henaghan said IVF babies accounted for only about 3% of births and not all parents would want to choose the sex of their babies.

It appeared there was no clear evidence of the choice doing any harm.

People who saw the recommendation as part of a slippery slope should be mindful such a slope did not have to be "whistled" down.

It could be taken in cautious steps, with negotiation and debate along the way.

The good thing about the issue being raised was that it would be debated around the tea table and people would become more comfortable with the idea.

Biomedical ethics Professor Grant Gillett said he could not see the sex selection issue being accepted as policy.

In the long-term, he expected there would be much more discussion relating to pre-implementation genetic diagnosis (PGD) as genetic research advanced, including defining which conditions were likely to lead to severe hardship for children.

A former Dunedin resident who underwent IVF and now offers support to families with fertility problems, Bev Summers, said she had never had anyone tell her they wanted to have a baby of a particular sex.

People who had the "courage" to go through IVF were just keen to have a healthy baby.

While she agreed with people being able to have PGD screening for inherited diseases, and then also making the decision about what to do with the information gained, she was not in favour of sex selection.

The New Zealand Catholic Bioethics Centre says parenthood is about welcoming the children people are given, rather than ordering them to specifications.

Michael McCabe and John Kleinsman, of the centre, said the proper role of pre-birth testing was to help the parents prepare the best way they could for their new child or to enable medical interventions in-utero, not to eliminate certain types of children.

The Otago Daily Times online readers have not been quick to enter the argument.

By last night, only 40 people had responded to the question "Should IVF parents be able to choose their child's gender?" Sixty percent said no.