Abbott seeks sex selection ban (Australia)
By Suzanne Smith,
ABC (Australia)
| 08. 30. 2004
TONY
JONES: Several private IVF clinics in New South Wales are charging
couples $12,000 to allow them to select the sex of their child.
The clinics call it "family balancing".
Couples are allowed to choose a boy or a girl for a social rather than medical reason.
Sex
selection of embryos is banned in every state in Australia, apart from
New South Wales, and is banned in Europe, unless there is a compelling
medical reason to do so.
And now the Federal Health Minister,
Tony Abbott, has weighed in, calling on New South Wales to ban sex
selection for social reasons.
Suzanne Smith reports.
SUZANNE
SMITH: Since 1997, 160 couples from across Australia and the world have
come to this private clinic, Sydney IVF, to choose the sex of their
child.
KYLIE DE BOER, EMBRYOLOGIST, SYDNEY IVF: Couples mostly
access sex selection for reasons of family balancing, which means they
feel that by having a sibling of a different sex to the existing
siblings would be more beneficial to the family they already have and
to the sibling they are...
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