If you could choose the sex of your baby would you? Thanks to science now you can. This reminds me of that movie with Ethan Hawke "Gattaca." In the film they perfected genetic engineering so when your child is born you can determine their sex and ensure that they never have bad eye sight, hearing loss, or diseases. Basically there is no such thing as the "runt of the litter" and having a child naturally is frowned upon.
How does it work?
The writers of this film might have been onto something here. Now in real life you can choose the baby's sex. Dr. John Wilcox, Reproductive Endocrinologist at HRC Fertility, explains the science, "After fertility medication is provided, we remove the eggs from the body, fertilize and grow embryos for 3 days. A cell is removed from the embryo and gender is confirmed. Selected embryos are then transfered or frozen."
The process has a 99% accuracy rate. The total cost for treatment is approximately $15,000 all inclusive. If you have the cash, it could be worth the investment.
Is this messing with Mother Nature?
Dr. Wilcox says this process is becoming very popular and that a lot of couples want to control the size of their family and have both a boy and a girl without having to have 5 kids before they get to their first girl. Dr. Wilcox says this definitely does not disrupt the balance of the sexes, "Primarily because people are not selecting the same gender and the percentage of the population using gender selection is modest."
If you had the option, would you chose the sex of your baby?
