Over the past decade there has been an advance in gene therapy and a new reproductive technology has evolved, also known as ‘designer babies’. This technology allows parents and doctors to screen embryos for genetic disorders and gender using IVF (in-vitro fertilisation) to fertilise the egg and sperm in a laboratory. The embryo is then analysed using specific techniques before being placed in the mother’s womb. One such technique tests gender. The mother has two X chromosomes and the father an X and Y chromosome, therefore the power lies in the father’s sperm. By extracting DNA from the father’s sperm cell, scientists are able to stain the DNA with nontoxic light-sensitive dye, allowing them to sort the sperm by gender. This therefore provides the parents with the option of choosing their child’s gender. Couples have also used this technology to avoid hereditary diseases especially those that are most common in a certain gender, for example haemophilia. This reproductive technology has caused uproar for ethicists, religious leaders and politicians in Australia and the Unites States as it gives people freedom to use this technology for their own family balancing of gender as opposed to serious medical indications.
Reference: David Bjerklie and Alice Park- New York, Dick Thompson- Washington (1999, January 11). Designer Babies. Time Magazine, Retrieved 14 March, 2009,
Photo taken from: http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/2008/11/ivf.jpg
