Judging from a CBS News interview with Dr Jeffrey Steinberg, of Fertility Institutes in Los Angeles, there is a strong market for selecting the sex of babies in the US. Dr Steinberg — one of the few US doctors who does sex selection — told 60 Minutes II that his business has taken off since he began offering it as part of his IVF business. "In the last two years since we’ve offered gender selection, we’ve seen a huge international onslaught of people that are just interested in balancing their families," he says.

He now handles 10 procedures a week, compared to one or two a month when he first offered the service. "In the beginning it was only patients that were having IVF anyway. Now 70 per cent of the patients would never need IVF, except for the fact that they want to do the gender selection," he says. Dr Steinberg also has clinics in Las Vegas and Mexico and has worked in IVF centres in the UK and Australia. He has been a technical consultant to television programs such as "Murphy Brown," "Sex and the City" and "Friends."

• Author
• Recent Posts

Mumbai

Latest posts by Mumbai (see all)

• Prescribe morning-after pills to young teenagers, say US pediatric group - November 30, 2012
• Bahrain sentences protest docs to prison - November 28, 2012
• Terry Pratchett assisted suicide documentary wins International Emmy - November 27, 2012