Originally published March 28 2005
Debate renews over 'designer babies' in England; lawmakers battle over whether couples should choose sex of implanted embryos
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The debate over "designer babies" has come up again in the British Parliament. Some lawmakers are reconsidering a 15-year-old law that, in most cases, prohibits couples undergoing fertility treatments from in using technology to choose the sex of their unborn babies. Now a committee in parliament has formally recommended the rule be changed to allow the choices. Nearly half of that committee disagrees with the idea, however.
Plans to allow British parents having fertility treatment to choose the sex of their unborn baby split an influential group of lawmakers on Thursday and reignited the debate over "designer babies."
Couples should be able to decide the gender of the embryo being implanted, parliament's cross-party Science and Technology Committee said in a report.
Critics say sex selection would turn unborn babies into "consumer items" and could pave the way for parents choosing other characteristics such as hair or eye color.
"The use and destruction of embryos does raise ethical issues and there are grounds for caution," the report concluded, but added: "On balance we find no adequate justification for prohibiting the use of sex selection for family balancing."
The report, which makes recommendations into the future of Britain's 15-year-old fertility laws, also said controversial research, such as implanting human cells into animals, should be considered subject to regulation.
A number of recent cases have tested those legal boundaries and provoked a heated ethical debate on the merits and pitfalls of embryo selection.
Committee chairman Ian Gibson, of the ruling Labour Party, denied the report backed the creation of "designer babies" or allowing parents to choose hair or eye color.
"We back proper investigation into the sex selection process."
But five parliamentarians on the committee distanced themselves from the report.
"We believe this report is unbalanced, light on ethics, goes too far in the direction of deregulation and is too dismissive of public opinion and much of the evidence," they said in a statement.
Opponents of gender selection say it will inevitably open a new era of parents choosing babies' other characteristics.
"Social sex selection should not be allowed, because it turns children into consumer items and allows gender stereotypes to determine who gets born," said Dr David King, director of campaign group Human Genetics Alert.
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