Gender Selection News

Good Morning America features PGD

The ABC morning show Good Morning America features the Magill family of Grafton, Mass.  The parents of 3 girls used PGD, or preimplantation genetic diagnosis, to conceive twin boys, now nearly one.

The segment includes comments by Dr. Mark Hughes, who developed the PGD technique and opposes its use for sex selection.  Dr. Hughes repeats, as he does in every interview, that "The last time I checked, your gender was not a disease."

• Boy or Girl? Couples Choose Unborn Children's Sex
  Couples Use Technique Originally Used to Screen Genetic Disorders
  ABC Good Morning America (includes video link)

MicroSort hikes prices

If you're hoping to use MicroSort to conceive a son or a daughter, get ready for the sticker shock to get even worse. There's just been a significant price increase in the sperm sorting service.

Notes:

Service	March 2005	March 2006	Increase
MicroSort Sperm Sorting	$2,995	$3,400	$405
Extra sorted vial	$651	$700	$49
Patient Consultation (GIVF)	$265	$300	$35
Patient Consultation (Collaborator)	$133	$300	$167
IUI Procedure (1)	$329	$365	$36
Daily Monitoring for IUI (2)	$392/day	$475/day	$83/day
Full Monitoring for IUI (3)	$1,169	$1,650	$481
Review Outside Monitoring for IUI (4)	$496	$625	$128

1. Fee for IUI procedure only, does not include sort or ovulation monitoring.
2. If you choose to detect ovulation yourself using at-home ovulation prediction kits (OPKs), you can pay this fee for one day of testing to confirm ovulation.
3. Fee for complete ovulation monitoring at GIVF
4. Fee for GIVF to review the results of ovulation monitoring tests, and coordinate your cycle, with an outside doctor. You must still pay your doctor for the tests.

'The Family Man' TV drama addresses gender selection

An upcoming 3-part miniseries on UK television features a fertility expert facing ethical dilemmas in the world of IVF. One story line concerns parents of 3 daughters, who are devastated after the death of their son and want to use sex selection to conceive a boy -- against the law.

The story comes direct from the UK headlines. The Mastersons had four sons and one daughter, who died tragically as a toddler in a bonfire accident. The Mastersons unsuccessfully battled the UK government to be allowed to use sex selection to have a girl. Finally, the couple went abroad for several attempts with IVF/PGD, but failed to become pregnant. At last, they were forced to give up their dream of having daughter in their family once more. (See my previous blog posts for the Masterson's story.)

• Trevor Eve to star in The Family Man for BBC One
  BBC Press Release

TONIGHT on CNN's Paula Zahn: Acu-Gen's Baby Gender Mentor

A segment about Baby Gender Mentor airs tonight on CNN's Paula Zahn Now (8 eastern, 7 central).  "The maker of the product says the problem is with THEIR babies, not HIS test," says the teaser. The story features three of our own members, Leila (leilawill), Melissa (melissa30), and Raylene (realtormom).

Baby Lucas is born perfectly healthy after Trisomy-18 diagnosis from Acu-Gen

Just a few hours ago as I write this, a nightmare pregnancy came to an end for Erin Rivera.  A time that was supposed to be filled with joy and expectation became instead an agony of anxiety and worry when the Florida mother received a phone call, early in her pregnancy, with bad news.  Erin was told that genetic analysis had revealed "chromosomal abnormalities" in her baby.

But the call didn't come from Erin's doctor, and Erin hadn't requested or agreed to any genetic testing of this type.  On the phone was a complete stranger, Chang-ning Wang, from a company called Acu-Gen.  A few weeks earlier, Erin had sent the company three drops of her blood with the Baby Gender Mentor kit to find out her unborn baby's gender.  She thought it would be fun to tell her husband, a soldier deployed in Afghanistan, their new baby's gender long before an ultrasound scan could reveal whether it was a boy or a girl.  "Congratulations, you're having a boy!" was the result.

But the "fun" was replaced by fear and confusion when Wang's unexpected call informed Erin that his lab hadn't stopped with the gender test, but had gone on to perform additional genetic testing that, he said, revealed a chromosomal defect.  He wanted Erin to know this information so that she could make a "choice" about her pregnancy.   Erin says Wang would give no further details about what was supposedly wrong with her baby, and advised her to have an amniocentesis.  When she burst into tears, she says Wang hung up on her.

Erin's obstetrician, however, told her that her pregnancy seemed normal in every way.  Erin decided against risking her baby and did not have an amnio.

Nearing the end of her pregnancy, Erin would get another shocking "diagnisis" from Wang, but this time, it came from the television.  Although Wang refused to provide Erin with details of her baby's supposed "abnormality", he told ABC's Linda Hurtado with utter conviction: Erin's baby had Trisomy-18, and would "cease to exist" soon after birth. "We don't make mistake. Period." he concluded.  Erin had just received a death sentence for her baby on the evening news.

 Erin spent the remaining weeks of her pregnancy under this dark cloud, wondering if her baby boy, now named Lucas, would be born healthy, or with devastating birth defects, or would even survive to come home. 

On March 10, the verdict came at last, as Lucas Kian entered the world weighing 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and 20 inches long.  "Is he normal?" were the new mother's first words.  "Perfect!" declared the doctor, after checking him all over.  "This baby does NOT have Trisomy 18," concurred the nurse.  Erin's mother Nova would share the news in bold, capital letters: "MR. WANG WAS WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!!"

Lucas was, in fact, a normal, perfect, healthy baby boy in every way -- and had been so from the instant of his conception.  His mother, his family and their friends had worried needlessly throughout a pregnancy that should have been filled only with joyful expectation.