Everyone's Health

Selecting child sex

BOY OR GIRL?

Advances in reproductive medicine make it increasingly likely that couples seeking children will someday be able to choose the sex of their baby. But being able to do so doesn't mean most people will actually do so.

A University of Illinois survey of 1,197 men and women between the ages of 18 and 45 found that only 8 percent would use pre-implantation sex selection technologies to select the gender of their unborn child.

More than three-quarters said they either preferred an equal number of boys and girls or they had no preference in the sex of their children. Let nature decide was the usual answer.

Current forms of artificial insemination typically require multiple treatments and cost $10,000 or more for a successful pregnancy. The survey found that, given these facts, most respondents said they are happy just to have a healthy child, regardless of sex.

But even if sex selection technology was as simple as taking a blue pill for a boy or a pink for a girl, the number of people who would do so remained low, just 18 percent.

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