Aggregated News

Vishnee Seenundun
Consultation Co-ordinator
HFEA
Paxton House
30 Artillery Lane
London E1 7LS

Dear Vishnee Seenundun,

We are writing to express our concern regarding the HFEA's public consultation on sex selection, and to encourage you to ensure that strong policies are upheld and further developed against non-medical sex selection.

The Center for Genetics and Society is a U.S.-based non-profit public interest organization working to encourage responsible uses and democratic governance of the new human genetic and reproductive technologies. In our work, we look to the HFEA as a model for responsible regulation, and consider that your work carries critical weight for international policy making well beyond the UK. Conversely, we feel that the HFEA would do well to consider U.S. experience in this field, where a virtual absence of regulation has led to a shortchanging of ethical and social considerations and an unacceptable level of permissiveness in the fertility industry.

In general, we are concerned by the way in which the consultation document, "Sex selection: Choice and responsibility in reproduction" frames the consultation process around "risks to health" and "reliability...