The National Health and Medical Research Council is considering changing the rules in Australia on gender selection.
“We just really wanted a daughter and I had no ethical problems with it”
“I’ve been criticised for “playing God”, messing with nature and being superficial. I know that, to a childless woman struggling with infertility, I might seem ungrateful because I already have three healthy sons. But unless you’ve experienced “gender disappointment”, you can’t understand how crippling it can be.”
“I understand some people who can’t have their own children would be thinking, ‘you are lucky and you have three beautiful, healthy sons’. And that is true. But it is not about everyone else, it is about me and my husband and our choice, and women like me.”
These are just some of the views of Australian families who have undergone gender selection.
The controversial process whereby parents pick the sex of their baby through IVF.
Boy or girl? It’s up to you.
The process – currently illegal in Australia – has seen families fork out up to $50,000 to get those desired booties by travelling overseas – in most cases it seems pink is the fashionable shade.
But travelling to the US or Thailand to purchase your selected sex may be a thing of the past with the National Health and Medical Research Council considering changing the rules in Australia.
The MHMC has opened its consultation draft to public comment and is looking primarily for feedback on sex selection for non-medical purposes – along with the idea of compensating women for donating their eggs and the establishment of an Australian egg donor bank.