Parents Use Technique Originally Used to Screen Genetic Disorders
父母利用原先用于筛选遗传疾病的技术来鉴别胎儿性别
March 25, 2006 — - John and Kristen Magill of Grafton, Mass., have what you'd call a full house: They have three girls and twin baby boys who are about to turn one year old.
The Magills conceived their daughters naturally, but with sons Patrick and John III they entered a brave new world.
They were actually able to select their babies' sex.
"I always wanted a boy to you know play sports and stuff with, you know," John Magill said. "Not that I mind the girls. We love the girls, you know, and wouldn't trade them for anything. But you know, we just always wanted both."
The Magills had their sons through a process called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). The procedure requires in vitro fertilization (IVF) because embryos are then screened for their gender before being implanted in the womb.
Magill夫妇通过“移植前基因诊断”技术PGD得到了他们的儿子。因为胚胎在植入子宫前，要先进行性别筛选，PGD过程需要体外受精技术IVF。
"I feel my family's complete," Kristen Magill said. "And I won't look back 10 years down the road [and say], 'I wish we'd tried to have a boy.' "
Designed to Screen for Genetic Disorders
But PGD was not originally created to help couples like the Magills. It was developed to help people like the Rinaldi family, who are prone to genetic disorders.
"If it wasn't for this procedure, I really believe we wouldn't have a baby," Diane Rinaldi said.
PGD tests embryos for disease by looking for defective chromosomes. This helps couples prone to miscarriage or who carry genetic diseases to have healthy babies. But PGD also can screen embryos for gender, which is how the Magills had their twin boys, with the aid of Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg's Fertility Institutes.
PGD实验通过寻找到缺陷的染色体来测试胚胎的疾病。它帮助有流产倾向的，和带有遗传疾病的夫妇怀上健康的孩子。但PGD也能鉴别胚胎性别，Magill夫妇的双胞胎儿子的诞生也借助了这种技术。
"We're coming up on 2,000 couples now that we've done PGD on," Steinberg said. "Eighty-five to 90 percent of those couples have done it simply for gender selection. And we're coming up on close to 940 babies."
There are no exact numbers on how many couples are doing this, but it's probably very low because of the high cost -- $18,000 for just one try. Also, the process requires IVF whether you are fertile or not, which turns off some interested couples.
There are other methods of trying to choose your child's gender, like Microsort's experimental sperm sorting program. But nothing has the nearly 100 percent success rate of PGD.
Gender Selection Controversy 性别选择倍受争议
This new use of PGD does not please one of the pioneers of the procedure, Dr. Mark Hughes, director of Genesis Genetics Institute in Detroit.
"I went into science and into medicine to diagnose and treat, and hopefully cure disease. And the last time I checked, your gender wasn't a disease," Hughes said.
Gender selection has been largely banned in a growing number of countries, including France, Canada, England, Australia, Japan, Germany. But the practice is unregulated in the United States, and American attitudes are mixed.
性别选择在越来越多的国家中已经受到大规模禁止，其中就有法国，加拿大，英格兰，澳洲，日本和德国。但在美国这项技术还未有明确规定，美国人的态度也莫衷一是。
"About 40 percent of Americans approve of using genetic testing of embryos to pick the sex of their future child when it's not related to medical conditions," said Kathy Hudson, director of Genetics and Public Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
Kristen Magill says she's not ashamed she chose her sons' gender.
"I think it's a good opportunity for a family in the same situation as us," she said.
Kristen Magill's friend, Bobbi Driscoll, has three boys and is considering trying PGD to have a baby girl.
"I'm just so excited I think it completes their family," Driscoll said. "Right now, I just still feel a void. Maybe over time it will pass or we'll decide to do something."
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