Aggregated News
MUMBAI: Maharashtra is losing its daughters to sons pre-selected at in vitro fertilisation (IVF) laboratories abroad and delivered in India.
Instead of going through the risky and often guilt-ridden experience of having to abort a girl child, a rising number of fertile urban Maharashtrian couples are flocking to IVF centres in Thailand, Malaysia and the US, to pre-select the gender of their child before they get pregnant.
Scores of 'fertility' clinics in the state are helping affluent clients find a suitable clinic abroad that will ensure they have a son. In India pre-selection of gender is punishable under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act.
"Many couples approach us for gender selection but we do not entertain them. Many of these desperate parents then fly out of the country," says Dr Hrishikesh Pai, a leading IVF specialist of the country who works at Lilavati hospital.
DNA was able to track down a couple who opted for gender pre-selection abroad with the help of a Mumbai-based IVF specialist who found them the clinic.
The couple, who agreed to share their story on the...
Instead of going through the risky and often guilt-ridden experience of having to abort a girl child, a rising number of fertile urban Maharashtrian couples are flocking to IVF centres in Thailand, Malaysia and the US, to pre-select the gender of their child before they get pregnant.
Scores of 'fertility' clinics in the state are helping affluent clients find a suitable clinic abroad that will ensure they have a son. In India pre-selection of gender is punishable under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act.
"Many couples approach us for gender selection but we do not entertain them. Many of these desperate parents then fly out of the country," says Dr Hrishikesh Pai, a leading IVF specialist of the country who works at Lilavati hospital.
DNA was able to track down a couple who opted for gender pre-selection abroad with the help of a Mumbai-based IVF specialist who found them the clinic.
The couple, who agreed to share their story on the...