Campaigners: Don't play God
By EMMA MORTON
MAY 04, 2007
CAMPAIGNERS last night warned couples not to play God with a
revolutionary home test that reveals an unborn babys sex at six
weeks.
They fear the £189 kit will create a massive leap in abortions if
would-be parents are not having the gender they want.
Michaela Aston, spokeswoman for the charity LIFE, said: This test
is very dangerous. It could lead to babies being aborted simply for
being the wrong sex.
And Julia Millington, of the Prolife Alliance, said: There is a
real risk that some people would choose to abort babies of a
certain gender.
The earliest couples had previously known the gender of their baby
was at the 20-week scan four weeks before the legal limit for an
abortion.
But some health authorities have already stopped revealing that
information for fear of wrong-sex terminations.
The Pink or Blue Early Test Kit, launched on the internet this week
by DNA Worldwide, is claimed to be 98 per cent reliable.
Mums-to-be prick a finger to give a small blood sample. They put
this on a filter paper and send it to a lab for testing.
Lab technicians determine the sex by looking for the Y chromosome
found in males in three tests. Each works because an unborn babys
DNA is present in the mother for six weeks.
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Wrong-sex abortions are more common in some ethnic minorities
with boys being more highly prized than girls.
The North West London NHS Trust is one of the authorities to have
banned revealing gender information from scans.
Britain has one of the highest abortion rates in Europe, with more
than 185,000 a year. More than 80 per cent are performed at under
13 weeks.
Prolife Alliances Ms Millington added: We have already reached an
alarming situation where hospitals in some parts of the UK will no
longer disclose the gender of an unborn child.
That hospitals adopt this policy shows it is already a real
problem. Abortion for gender does not fall within the terms of UK
abortion law.
David Nicholson, director of DNA Worldwide based in Cranleigh,
Surrey and the British arm of US company Consumer Genetics Inc
said: This test is based on the science of foetal DNA in the
bloodstream.
Parents are excited by the pregnancy and want to know the sex of
their baby. A lot even build an extra room or redecorate one for
the baby and they dont want to wait until their 20-week scan to
find the sex.