Southern California: Ground zero for fertility clinic shenanigans

Posted by Marcy Darnovsky February 25, 2009
Biopolitical Times
The world's most famous octuplets (think about that) were produced by the West Coast IVF Clinic in Beverly Hills. The fertility practice that's now advertising the "coming" availability of embryo screening for "gender, eye color, hair color and complexion" is headquartered in Los Angeles.

Using the embryo screening procedure known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for sex selection is prohibited by law in some 35 countries. Like the transfer of more than two embryos into a woman under 35, it's also discouraged by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine [PDF]. The ASRM could put a bit of force behind its voluntary guidelines - suspending the membership of violators, for example - but there's no apparent evidence of it ever doing that.

Southern California isn't the only place where some fertility practices openly flout professional guidelines, but it does seem to be a center of questionable conduct. A few minutes of web searching turned up six clinics in the LA region (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) whose sites make it clear that they happily screen embryos for social sex selection.