Gender-Selection Technique Embraced for Hopef...( Couples can choose child's gender wit...)

Couples can choose child's gender with less ethically charged method at Reproductive Science Center of the San Francisco Bay Area

SAN RAMON, Calif., May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to growing numbers of couples who want to choose the sex of their next child, the Reproductive Science Center of the San Francisco Bay Area (RSC) announced today that it now is offering an alternative gender-selection technique with fewer moral and ethical dilemmas.

The Ericsson method is based on manipulation of sperm -- not an embryo. According to the developer, this technique offers approximately a 70-percent chance of success of obtaining the desired gender at conception. Thousands of healthy babies have been born using this method, according to Ericsson's studies.

This method was also selected because of its appeal to many families and medical ethicists, since it sidesteps the creation of embryos that might face eventual destruction if they are not of the desired gender.

The technique employs a centrifugation process, known as "sperm sorting," which allows embryologists to choose sperm with X- or Y- bearing chromosomes that provide three in four odds of determining the correct gender. The selected sperm is then used to create the embryo through in vitro fertilization (IVF).

"For parents who may already have several children or the same gender and want a child of the opposite sex, this method may ease their ethical and moral concerns," said Dr. Kristen Ivani, RSC's laboratory director.

"We're part of a growing number of fertility clinics who are helping couples exercise greater reproductive choices," said Ivani, "although RSC is one of the few full-service IVF centers in the Bay Area that offers gender selection in combination with a complete range of diagnostic and fertility care."

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