Preconception gender selection for nonmedical  reasons

Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine

American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama

Arguments For Preconception Gender Selection

The argument for permitting preconception gender selection is that it serves the desires of couples who have strong preferences about the gender of their offspring, some of whom might use abortion or embryo selection to realize their goal or be unhappy with children of the undesired gender. In some cases, couples with one or more children of a particular sex might strongly prefer to have a child of the opposite sex and might choose not to have another child unless they can use preconception gender selection to provide gender variety in their offspring. In other cases, they might have such strong preferences for a first-born child’s gender that they might resort to postconception selection methods or not reproduce at all unless preconception methods are available.