Using science to pick baby’s sex

NST: Most religious leaders say it’s playing God, but an increasing number of couples are using medical technology to choose the sex of their babies.
Medical experts say young couples today are more likely to turn to gender selection.
So it was with Alice (not her real name), 33, who already had three daughters, aged between three and eight.
Her husband Lenny (not his real name), 34, had always wanted a son so that they could kick a football at the neighbourhood park.
Add that to an extremely pushy set of in-laws and the prodding from her own parents, and Alice was getting desperate.
Then she heard about the possibility of being able to choose the gender of a child.
"The concept seemed alien at first when my friend mentioned it but it was intriguing. She read about it in a local Chinese newspaper. I talked it over with my husband and we decided to give it a try," said the housewife.
Alice went to a local fertility centre in the Klang Valley.
Besides recording her personal particulars such as blood type and the cycle of her menstruation, she was also advised to eat more alkaline-based food such as seafood.
"To increase our chances, we were told to have intercourse during ovulation using a certain method," she said.
After three consultations at a total cost of RM600, she was pregnant with a son, who was born in September last year.
Malaysian Fertility Society president Datuk Dr Hamid Arshat said most couples preferred having both a boy and a girl.
Using a combination of methods, gender selection can be between 70 and 80 per cent accurate, he said.
Selecting a child’s gender, said Dr Hamid, was prevalent among all races, but more significantly among younger middle and upper-class couples.
Most couples were in their late 20s and early 30s, and many made a choice of the baby’s sex based on social or cultural reasons as certain communities preferred males.
Dr Hamid, who used to head the National Population and Family Planning Board, said this trend was prevalent in many countries including Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, "but with God’s will, there will be a balance (between girls and boys) at the end of the day".
"We are going through a luxury phase, so people are more choosy," he said.
Choice Baby Sdn Bhd director N. Therakaran said his company offered a method which had a success rate of 92 per cent.
"Rather than a 50 per cent chance, we offer a higher success rate and those who opt for it have nothing to lose as we offer a 100 per cent money-back guarantee if they fail to conceive the gender of their choice," he said.
He said when his company started in May 2001, it was seeing an average of 15 clients a month and now this had increased to 80.
Obstetrics and gynaecology consultant Dr Harlina Halizah Siraj of Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia said in the area of gender selection, there were strict ethical guidelines from the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.
Among the principles is that the foetus cannot be aborted because parents are unhappy with the sex of the child.
"We are now at a period where we have an option. Just like choosing the colour of a new car, some people may want to select the sex of their children.
"Before, we said it’s up to God, but now the technology is here," said Dr Harlina.