Pick-a-sex babies get closer

These are among many questions being asked in a landmark review of fertility laws. STEPHEN LEWIS reports.

AT the moment, couples in this country cannot choose the sex of their children. Like so many things, it is left up to nature.

All that could change, however. The technology has long existed for us to be able to choose the sex of our children - and it is easily understandable why a couple who already have two boys might want to have a girl, or vice versa.

Under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990, sex selection is allowed where there is a risk of a baby being born with a sex-linked disorder, such as haemophilia.

But the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) opposed its use simply for the purposes of family balancing, and it was banned.

Now, a long-awaited review of fertility laws asks whether the time has come to lift that ban - and if so, how many children of one sex a couple should have before they are allowed to use screening techniques to have a child of the other sex.

Launching the review yesterday, public health minister Caroline Flint accepted that the question of sex selection of unborn babies was difficult. But she insisted now was the right time to address the issue.

"I think there are very good reasons why sex selection has been allowed on medical grounds, rather than non-medical grounds," she said.

"There are important and complex questions to be asked but I do think that we need to ask these questions."

Sex selection is just one of many potentially sensitive issues raised by the review.

Other areas of fertility law about which the views of the public are to be sought include:

Whether payment for donated sperm or eggs should be banned

Whether people conceived from donated eggs or sperm should be able to find out whether they are related to someone with whom they are considering having a relationship

Whether there should be better controls of internet sperm banks, amid fears purchase of sperm from sources that are not properly regulated could pose a risk of HIV or other infection

Whether it should be easier for lesbians and single women to have IVF babies. The law at present stipulates that the "need of a child for a father" should be taken into consideration when deciding about whether IVF treatment is appropriate - a requirement the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee this year branded offensive to unconventional families.

We asked a few local people for their own views....

Jane Sachedina was one of the first British women to have a child through egg donation. A combination of ovarian cancer at 14 and an aggressive cyst in her second ovary at 18 robbed her of the chance of having her own child.

She threw herself into a career as a successful solicitor and when, in 1987, she married her husband Karim, they first inquired about adoption. Then Jane's GP told her of a pioneering project at the Lister hospital in London involving egg donation and IVF.

The couple's daughter Sophia, now 14, was the result. The family now live in Shipton Street, in York.

Jane still regards IVF as a "miracle", but accepts that it has changed since the days when she had Sophia. Then, it was simply a wonderful new technique to help women like herself who would not otherwise be able to have children, she says. Now, with the advance of technology, it is a medical procedure that can be used in a whole range of situations - many of which raise ethical questions.

Jane sees no justification for denying that procedure to single women, or women in a lesbian relationship. She is not sure about being able to select the sex of a child simply to balance the family - that is a choice that nature itself does not offer, she says - but she has definite views on the buying and selling of sperm and eggs. The eggs she received were a wonderful gift, she says: and she feels it should stay that way. "I don't think it can be right that you should be able to buy living material," she says. "The idea of being able to go on the internet and tick a few boxes and say 'I want a child that has blue eyes... I think that takes away the great gift."

She also has mixed feelings about the amount of information children should have about the donors who made their birth possible.

Sophie knows she is from a donor egg, and has accepted having just a few very basic details about the woman who gave that egg - how old she was, how many children she had, what she did for a living.

But being able to access more information than that might do more harm than good, Jane believes - because some children might always want to know more. "And people might not donate if 18 years down the line a few children were to suddenly pop up!"

After suffering a miscarriage, Jocelyn Favill had been trying for a child with her husband Lee for three years when she decided to go down the IVF route. Tests had shown nothing wrong with either of them: their apparent infertility was described as inexplicable.

She became pregnant at the third try - and three month old Ben is the result.

Jocelyn, now 36, admits that initially she had hoped for a girl: but as soon as she held Ben in her arms, she felt he was perfect.

Unless there is a risk of a baby being born with a sex-linked condition such as haemophilia, therefore, she is against being able to choose the sex of your child.

" I just don't believe that's right," she says. "It is best to leave it to chance."

She has no such qualms about embryos being screened for inherited disorders such as Downs Syndrome, however.

Undergoing IVF is stressful enough without being told that your longed for baby suffers from an inherited condition, she says.

She has an open mind on the question of single women being able to access IVF.

"I'm in favour of the family, and I think a stable relationship is preferable," she says. "But I don't think it should be black and white.

"You need to look at each case individually."

The treatment

The Selby and York Primary Care Trust will provide up to two cycles of IVF treatment on the NHS for local patients - one using fresh embryos, and one using frozen embryos. The treatment is available to couples in which the woman is up to 40, the man up to 45. The Trust does not fund treatment for lesbian couples on the NHS.

The same-sex couple

Children were never really an issue for Celia Kitzinger and her partner Sue Wilkinson.

The couple, who live in York, were married in Canada two years ago, and are now launching a legal challenge to the UK's refusal to recognise same-sex marriages.

Celia, a professor of sociology at York University, says she and Sue considered the question of children, and decided against.

"It was not biology that stopped us," she says.

There is a very simple way for a lesbian couple to have children, that need not involve science or assisted fertility, Celia points out.

"The first thing I would have done is look for a male friend!" she says. "That's how most lesbians do it."

Nevertheless, she welcomes the fact that the Government seems to be trying to be more equitable in making it easier for lesbian women to access IVF treatment if they wish it. She doesn't think it is right the fertility laws should attach so much importance to the presence of a father.

"I'm not anti-father," she says. "They are a nice thing to have around. But even if you have a father around at the time of insemination, you cannot guarantee they will be around by the time a child is born!"

The expert

Professor Henry Leese of the University of York is leading a study into the ethical issues surrounding IVF treatment.

He welcomes the review of fertility laws. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act is now 15 years old, he points out.

"It has stood the test of time really well, but there have been a lot of new developments, particularly in the science, things such as stem cell research," he says.

More than 70 questions and proposals are being consulted on altogether, so he believes the review is "pretty exhaustive." He won't be drawn into commenting on specific issues such as choosing the sex of a baby, or whether the "need of a child for a father" should be given so much weight when deciding who is eligible for IVF treatment. But it is right that those issues should be put out to consultation, he says.

It is good that the issue of internet sperm banks is being looked into, he adds.

At the moment, it is possible to order sperm from relatively unregulated sources outside the UK - which means there is always the question a donor has not been screened properly for conditions such as HIV.

Just how the Government would set about regulating such internet banks is another question, however, he says.

Updated: 10:43 Wednesday, August 17, 2005