Trait and Sex Selection

The Tarrytown Meetings (July 25-27, 2011)

Rajani Bhatia

MicroSort – sperm sexing via flow cytometry (combined with IUI or IVF)

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) – embryo sexing(combined with IVF)

a western practice

with white women subjects with strong desires for girls

NOT India or China

NOT sex selective abortion or infanticide

“Unlike much of the rest of the world, Americans do not prefer boys.” (Lisa Belkin, “Getting the Girl,” in The New York Times Magazine, 1999)“So You Want a girl?” (Wadman in Fortune, 2001) “Going for the Girl” (des Jardins in Parenting, 2001) “I’ll Have a Girl, Please” (American Public Media/Marketplace, 2006)

Of 92 couples who underwent sex selective PGD at The Center for Human Reproduction (NY) between January 2004 and December 2006, 36 selected girls, and 56 boys.

“Gender selection choices were to a statistically significant degree dependent on the couple’s ethnicity….” (Gleicher and Barad, Human Reproduction, 2007)

At one U.S. clinic, 60 % of sex selection patients come from abroad, mainlyCanada (including immigrants from China,

Albania and Armenia)

China

England But also from Nigeria

At the other U.S. clinic, 50% of sex selection patients come from abroad, mainly

Australia England India China South Korea Canada (including 1st generation immigrants

from China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan and Central Asian Republics)

But also wealthy, upper class from Central Asian Republics (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan) and Nigeria

Clinic to clinic provider networks

Divisibility of lengthy technological processes into movable parts

1992 GIVF Institute gets exclusive 17 year license to commercialize USDA developed sperm sorting method in humans

1993 trial begins for medical indication1995 trial expands to “family balancing”1999 FDA extends authority over the trial2008 trial reaches sample size of 1,050 babies and ends2009 GIVF Institute due to lose exclusive license but get 1 year

extension2009 GIVF launches MicroSort International and opens labs in

Guadalajara, Mexico City2010 GIVF loses exclusive license and FDA prohibits continued

access to the technology for “family balancing” while it makes a determination on the technology’s safety and efficacy in the U.S.

2011 MicroSort International expanding to Dubai?, Cyprus lab opening soon

U.S. –provider team travels to Mexican satellite clinic about every 7 weeks. Cells are sent back to U.S. for PGD analysis.

Until we have a more accurate picture of who goes for sex selection and why, we should question the East/West binary created within mainstream narratives that has produced a hierarchy of good vs. bad sex selection practices. It is minimally important, therefore, to demand the collection of better information and statistics related to the supply and demand of sex selection, in conjunction with other services provided at fertility clinics in the U.S.