Preselection of gender for children closer to FDA approval

[RB TexLa]

This is pretty cool stuff. Amazing to think what they can do in regards to selection 20 or 50 or 100 years from now.


MicroSort® Clinical Trial Reaches Birth Limit

Effort Now Focused on FDA Approval

The MicroSort® Division of GIVF has now reached an important milestone in our effort to have MicroSort® approved by the FDA and made more widely available. The maximum number of MicroSort procedures that are allowed under the protocol has been reached, and we have requested that the FDA grant us permission to provide continued access to the MicroSort® technology. If permission to proceed is granted by the FDA, this step would not represent FDA approval, but would allow us to operate under the same rules as the clinical trial.

We will provide more information on this web page as we work through the necessary procedures and as we receive feedback from the FDA with regards to our request for continued access. If you wish to be notified of any changes in the status of MicroSort® procedures, we invite you to sign up for MicroSort® eNews by clicking here. Any news and/or updates about MicroSort will be sent via email to those signed up for MicroSort® eNews.

MicroSort® General Information

The Genetics & IVF Institute is offering couples the ability to increase the chance of having a child of the desired gender to reduce the probability of X-linked diseases or for family balancing. Utilizing new flow cytometric separation technology, the X (female) or Y (male) chromosome-bearing sperm can be sorted and the enriched fraction of sorted sperm used to achieve pregnancy.

Semen specimens contain approximately 50% X- and 50% Y-bearing sperm. If the proportion of either X- or Y-bearing sperm is increased, the chance of having a child with the desired sex should be correspondingly increased. MicroSort technology currently provides an average increase in X-bearing sperm to 88% (determined by DNA analysis) in the enriched X-sorted sample (XSort®). The content of Y-bearing sperm is increased to an average of 73% (determined by DNA analysis) in enriched Y-sorted samples (YSort®). The current technology does not result in the complete exclusion of either X- or Y-bearing sperm from the final sperm preparation. DNA analysis by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) can be performed on a portion of the sorted sample to indicate its percentages of the different sperm cells.
http://www.microsort.net/

[VotesForWomen]

1. cool? that's not quite what i would call it. but hey, at least they don't just kill the girl babies

when they're born, so i guess it's an improvement.

[RB TexLa]

2. Certainly there would be people choosing the baby to be a girl

It is cool that it can be done. With DNA mapping, I'd think in the future every option could be decided.

[bean fidhleir]

3. Probably not cool, but for any family with an x-linked problem,

it would be useful to increase the chance of a girl and thus decrease the chance of the problem's expression. It'd be even better not to have kids at all in that case but how many people are able to forego their Very Own Gene Transmission.

[mainegreen]

4. reducing X-linked diseases:Ok; Famlily balancing: Jail.

For use to reduce risk of inheritable diseases, this is ok, with a prescription after visiting a doctor.
For use to balance genders? WTF? Totally needs to be made illegal if it isn't.

[RB TexLa]

6. A prescription to have your own bodily items separated?

[mainegreen]

8. Sure.

Reasonable with a drug that can both be used for good and for bad.

Happens all the time.

[RB TexLa]

10. And in your opinion the "bad" is people choosing the gender they want?

[mainegreen]

11. Yes.

Any form of 'designer people', of which this is a minor version of, is bad.
It's the equivalent of aborting a baby because you don't like the gender.

[Initech]

5. Remember that movie Gattaca?

It's about what happens when genetic selection goes wrong. If you haven't seen it yet, do it:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/

This movie is becoming more reality than science fiction at this point. Imagine what the Bushies could do if they had access to that kind of technology. :scared:

[shanti]

7. wow

i would LOVE to have had this after giving birth to 4 boys (and wanting a daughter)!

[Xithras]

9. I know someone who aborted after finding out she was pregnant with her 4th boy.

She REALLY wanted a girl, and she and her husband had agreed that they were stopping at 4 babies. When an early 3D sonogram determined that her 4th was another boy, she aborted. Pregnancy #5 was a girl.

I doubt it's common, but it happens. Her body, her choice.

[shanti]

12. her choice, true

i could never have done it tho and i wouldn't judge her. i felt like that for a minute after my third son, but got over it. my fourth son was from my second marriage, so i had the wild notion that i'd FINALLY get a girl, but....no. i look at it this way: in some cultures i would be looked upon as a queen with four sons!:)

ps-my sister had four sons too and all her grandchildren are girls - go figure! my first granchild is due in two months and yes, it's a boy!