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UK Report Suggests Designer Offspring

Posted by Zonk on from the dino-babies dept.

chromakey writes "Several news agencies are reporting that the UK is considering allowing parents undergoing fertility treatment to select the sex of their unborn babies." Also covered in Q&A format by the BBC. From the article: "At the moment in the UK, sex selection is only permitted if there are strict medical reasons. This could be because there is a serious sex-linked disorder in the family, such as Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy."

1 of 419 comments (clear)

  1. Trivial improvement on an old method by climb_no_fear · · Score: 5, Informative

    People have been able to shift the sex ratio for years. All you need is a centrifuge and the appropriate density gradient. Since the Y chromosome is much smaller than the X, Y sperm are significantly more buoyant than X sperm (nearly a 10% difference) and can be separated from one another and used for artificial insemination.

    The only difference here is that they verify sex by PCR so that it now works 100% of the time instead of only 90.

    I'm no British law expert but the old method was probably perfectly legal as it would be difficult to mandate what one can do with semen (your disgusting imagination may be inserted here).

    I can hear "Every Sperm is Sacred" now....