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July 20, 2005
Israeli Expert In Jewish Medical Ethics Says $25 Gender Check Kit To Check Fetus's Sex Could 'Lead To Abortions'
Topics: Life IssuesA US home test for determining the sex of a fetus from the fifth week of gestation should not be allowed into Israel, a senior expert in Jewish medical ethics says.
Prof. Avraham Steinberg, an Israel Prize laureate, pediatric neurologist at Shaare Zedek Hospital and medical ethicist at the Hebrew University's Faculty of Medicine said the use of such a kit here could result in numerous "abortions for unacceptable reasons."
Steinberg was asked by The Jerusalem Post to comment on the marketing in the US of a kit that takes a drop of blood from pregnant women and claims to give the sex of the fetus with "99.9 percent" accuracy.
The British Medical Journal reported recently on the Baby Gender Mentor test after the Pregnancy Store, the company that sells it, promoted it on US television. It was developed by a Massachusetts biotech company called Acu-Gen.
The Health Ministry, which was not familiar with the kit, said it would investigate.
Pregnancy Store president Sherry Bonelli said: "We've had more than a thousand inquiries in just three weeks. Our phone is ringing off the hook."
The company, whose Web site is at www.pregnancystore.com, said it will promote the test in pregnancy and parenting magazines. The kit costs $25.
After the woman places a drop of blood on a stick that dries, she mails it to the company with $250.
The laboratory analyzes fetal DNA in the blood sample looking for a Y chromosome, indicating that it is a male; women have only X chromosomes. A few days later, the woman enters her assigned code on the Web site to learn the sex of her fetus. If there is an error, a refund is offered.
US health insurance does not cover the cost, which is similar to that of an ultrasound (which does not always accurately predict the baby's sex). Two invasive techniques, chorionic villus sampling (at 11 weeks) and amniocentesis (from 18 weeks), also provide information about genetic disorders (the kit does not), but can cause harm to the fetus in a small minority of cases.
Bonelli said the kit was useful to "personalize" the child, so that parents could name him or her while still in the womb and prepare nursery rooms in pink or blue. She said she did not think it would be used in the US for sex selection (abortion of a fetus of an unwanted sex).
But Steinberg said that after the ministry has set up a committee to approve applications for sex selection of embryos after in-vitro fertilization and before reimplantation, "it seems almost certain" that such a kit would lead to abortions at early stages of pregnancy. "The slippery slope seems to be serious and real," said Steinberg, an Orthodox Jew.
Posted by Hyscience at July 20, 2005 1:33 AM
Articles Related to Life Issues:
- Israeli Expert In Jewish Medical Ethics Says $25 Gender Check Kit To Check Fetus's Sex Could 'Lead To Abortions' - Jul 20, 2005
