Preconception gender selection for nonmedical reasons.

For centuries, attempts have been made to choose the gender of offspring, but not until the 1970s did effective prebirth gender selection become possible through prenatal diagnosis and abortion. More recently, preimplantation techniques to determine the sex of embryos for transfer have been established (1, 2). Because these methods require either prenatal diagnosis and abortion or a costly cycle of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and discarding of embryos, they have been used primarily by persons seeking to avoid having children with X-linked genetic diseases. A safe and effective means of separating Xand Y-bearing sperm before in vivo artificial insemination or IVF is more likely to be sought by persons contemplating reproduction, for it causes no destruction of prenatal life and is less intrusive and costly than other methods. The use of preconception techniques for nonmedical gender selection raises important ethical and social concerns that need thorough attention before these techniques become available for nonmedical purposes.