Sex test controversy

A test being sold on the Internet allowing future parents to know the gender of their unborn child has come in for criticism.

BBC News reports the procedure uses the pregnant woman's blood obtained from a pin prick and detects whether it has a "Y" chromosome. This would mean the baby would be a boy.

The company marketing the test, DNA Worldwide, claims it is 99 percent accurate and offers a refund if the prediction turns out to be wrong, BBC News reports. The test can be done after six weeks of pregnancy.

Not new science
It is not new science, the BBC says, but many organisations are concerned that commercial marketing of it could lead to abuse. A number of British anti-abortion groups are opposing the test, fearing that if prospective parents find out that the sex of their unborn baby is not the one they want, they would seek an abortion.

And at least one UK medical group opposes the test. A spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists told the BBC that gender selection under these circumstances is inappropriate. "Focus should remain firmly on the health and care of the mother and developing baby, rather than gender," the BBC quotes a spokesman as saying.

David Nicholson, the director of DNA Worldwide, rejected these concerns, telling BBC News that surveys of those who have used the service in the past year didn't indicate that an increase in abortions was occurring. – (HealthDayNews)

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Pregnancy Centre

May 2007