Scores of couples take advantage of liberal legislation.

Scores of Australian couples are visiting the US to avail themselves of sex-selective IVF, according to infertility doctor turned businessman Daniel Potter. Potter, who is currently touring Australia, runs a network of IVF clinics in Southern California known as HRC Fertility.

In an interview with The Australian, he said that around 15 to 20 Australian couples visit his clinics each month. “Typically it’s women wanting to have a daughter, that’s 80 per cent of what we do,” he said.

For the 150 to 200 Australian couples that travel to the US for the procedure each year, the cost is usually $15,000 per treatment, excluding the accommodation and travel costs.

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council is currently running a consultation about proposed changes to the existing law on sex-selective IVF.

Doctors like Daniel Potter are strongly in favour of changing the law. Others, such as University of Sydney health and science reserach Tereza Hendl, believe that the IVF gender selection promotes sexism. “I’m quite critical of it because I think it basically reinforced a binary view of children,” Hendl said.

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