Australia’s IVF Laws are under review to allow parents to choose the gender of their third child.
Couples who use IVF to fall pregnant may be able to choose the sex of their child after their first birth to balance the sexes in the family.
Currently, parents are unable to choose the sex of their babies, but fertility specialists are lobbying the National Health and Medical Research council to allow parents to choose the gender of their babies.
The new rules would not allow couples to choose the gender of their first child, unless it was specifically for medical reasons where eugenic diseases are passed down through a particular gender.
Pofessor Ian Olver, chairperson of the NHMRC review panel said, “We wouldn’t want to promote any gender bias so that people select the sex of their first child.”
“I don’t think there would be an appetite for anything that emphasised one gender over another and allowed people, for cultural or racial reasons, to pick one gender.”
Many Australian couples are choosing to use IVF clinics in the US and Asia so they can choose the gender of their IVF baby.
Sex selection for family balancing has been slammed by the Australian Medical Association as ‘’not an appropriate use of medical science.”
We’d love to know what you think? Should the laws be changed so couples can choose the sex of their subsequent babies, or should the laws remain the same?
I think this is a wonderful idea as I am a mum of 3 boys the youngest being 2 and would love to have a baby girl as it would just complete my family as I have always wanted daughter and I think that if you have more of the one gender in the family then why shouldn’t you be able to choose the sex of your baby. I know that if I had the chance to go to the USA and pay for the gender selection I would go in a heartbeat.