Sex Selection Moves to Consumer Culture
By Marcy Darnovsky,
Genetic Crossroads
| 08. 20. 2003
Ads for "Family Balancing" in The New York Times
Several times over the past few months, a small
but striking ad from a Virginia-based fertility clinic has appeared
in the Sunday Styles section of The New York Times. Alongside
a smiling baby, its boldface headline asks, "Do You Want
To Choose the Gender Of Your Next Baby?"
If so, the ad continues, you can join "prospective parents…from
all over the world" who come to the Genetics & IVF
Institute (GIVF) for an "exclusive scientifically-based
sperm sorting gender selection procedure." The technique,
known by the trademarked name MicroSort, is offered as a way
to choose a girl or boy either for the "prevention of genetic
diseases" (selecting against the sex affected by an X-linked
or Y-linked condition) or for "family balancing" (selecting
for a girl in a family that already has one or more boys, or
vice versa).
GIVF
has been promoting MicroSort on its website for several years,
and a few other fertility clinics offer other "family balancing"
methods online. But the MicroSort ads in The New York Times
represent a bolder and higher-profile approach. They mark the...
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GIVF
has been promoting MicroSort on its website for several years,
and a few other fertility clinics offer other "family balancing"
methods online. But the MicroSort ads in The New York Times
represent a bolder and higher-profile approach. They mark the...