More S'poreans Going Abroad for IVF to Choose Baby's Gender
By Asia One,
Asia One
| 08. 22. 2011
More and more Singaporeans are heading overseas for medical procedures which allow them to choose their babies' gender.
According to The Straits Times, foreign destinations such as the United States, and increasingly Thailand, let parents choose the gender of their babies through a procedure known as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which is banned in Singapore.
These places are also well-known for their skills in in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Having sons important for people of Chinese ancestry
The managing director of Marvel IVF Solutions, an IVF facility in Bangkok, said 90 per cent of Singaporeans, Chinese nationals and Hong Kongers ask for boys.
That is because males are seen as heirs and capable of taking care of their siblings, the director said.
Other facilities such as Safe Fertility and PGD Centre in Bangkok and Fertility Institutes in Los Angeles also saw the same requests by Singaporean patrons, according to The Straits Times.
Embryos screened for gender or genetic diseases or both
PGD is carried out with IVF treatment and the embryos are screened for gender or genetic diseases or both, during the...
Related Articles
By Laura Hughes, Financial Times | 05.20.2026
Sophie and her husband are set to spend more than £100,000 in travel and medical bills as they fly between England and the US in their bid to have another child.
The couple are undergoing IVF treatment in New York...
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 05.25.2026
In a small, preliminary study, an experimental gene-editing treatment dramatically lowered cholesterol levels, perhaps permanently, after just one infusion, scientists reported on Monday.
If confirmed in larger studies, researchers hope the findings may lead to a one-and-done way to prevent...
By Nanette Elster, Kayhan Parsi, and Art Caplan, The American Journal of Bioethics | 05.06.2026
“Better babies.” “Fitter families.” “Survival of the fittest.” “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” These phrases are not merely historical reminders of the United States’ regrettable eugenic past but are appearing in an increasingly eugenic present. Eugenics may have seemed...
By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.06.2026
Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.
"These are saliva samples as well as blood," says Schleede, a geneticist who runs Herasight Inc.'s lab in Morrisville, N.C. "We also...
