Description

In this health video learn how today it is possible and legal to choose the sex of your child. But should you?

Transcript

Jennifer Matthews: Fertility specialist Jeffrey Steinberg has been doing in vitro fertilization since it started 30 years ago. Fast forward to 2008, and he now offers patients another breakthrough: choosing the sex of their children. Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg: If they want a boy, we give them only boys and if they want a girl, we give them only girls; and in thousands of cases, we've never gone wrong. Jennifer Matthews: Gender selection for non-medical reasons is illegal in many countries -- China, India, Germany, the UK, even Canada. But in the U.S., it's legal. The most sure-fire way to have a boy or girl is with pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD. By extracting just one cell of an embryo before it's implanted, Doctor Steinberg can tell an embryo's sex. Two X's -- a girl. One X and one Y -- a boy. Kirsten Landon has already raised two girls. But Matthew, her husband of six years, wanted a baby of his own. They needed IVF and they chose Doctor Steinberg to do it because he also offered sex selection. They chose a girl. Americans don't want the option. While 41-percent of infertility patients would choose their baby's sex, less than 18-percent of the general population would. Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg: They are basically saying that they want to use the science now of gender selection to discriminate against half of civilization, half of the people on Earth. Jennifer Matthews: But Doctor Steinberg says it's only a matter of time before gender selection is widely accepted. Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg: It's new. We know it's controversial. It scares people. But I've been doing in vitro fertilization for 30 years and 30 years ago, in vitro fertilization was new. Jennifer Matthews: Kirsten and Matthew welcomed the option to choose. Now, they can't wait to welcome their daughter. This is Jennifer Matthews reporting.