.jpg "Image") The French Biomedicine Agency has decided not to allow tests enabling parents to know the sex of their child as early as six weeks after conception. Surprisingly enough, however, the agency also said that nothing will be done to prevent French residents who make use of the service which is available online from the United Kingdom.
Le Monde reports that the “Agence de la Biomédecine” or French Biomedicine Agency, a public organisation under the supervision of the Minister of Health, will not allow, in France, early gender tests such as the one provided by DNA Worldwide which enables sex detection as early as six weeks after conception. The service was introduced earlier this month in the UK by DNA Worldwide, an American company, and raised concerns that it may prompt parents to abort if they are unhappy with the sex shown in the test results. ( BBC) The early gender test The test involves taking a prick of blood from the mother who then sends her sample to the company’s laboratory for analysis and receives the result in the post or can access it online using a protected password. The results are made available within four or six business days depending on the price. The service is payable in British Pounds, US dollars and Euros and costs €280 for the six days standard delivery and €353 for the express version. The test detects the presence of male DNA (Y chromosomes) in the mother’s blood; if any are present the assumption is that the baby is male. The company claims the test achieves a 99% accuracy in determining the sex of the unborn baby and has a money- back guarantee if results are incorrect. The Ethics: culture and sex selection Usually, in the UK and France, the parents, if they choose, can know the sex of their child at the ultrasound scan made around the 20th week of pregnancy. DNA worldwide said to the BBC that parents “are excited by the pregnancy and don't want to have wait until their 20-week scan to find out.” However, this early gender test has prompted concerns in the UK that it may lead to early abortions based on the sex of the child. The company confronted the issue by stating on their website that the UK is “a liberal society that does not prize babies of one sex over another, a culture which also places the responsibility for the unborn baby firmly with the mother” and that “as this is the case with most if not all Western cultures we are happy that, with education and informed debate, responsibility should lie with the individual.” However, DNA Worldwide is aware of the increased risk of gender selection in other countries and therefore claims that “together with the manufacturers of the test it has decided not to sell the early gender test into China and India and some other areas” as it does not want it to “be used, either directly or indirectly, for sex selection”. The situation in France Le Monde reports that, in France, early gender tests are not allowed unless parents present a risk of transmitting genetic diseases (some of which only affect male children) and they can only be done in specialised centres whose activities are monitored by the Biomedicine Agency. Commercial tests, such as the one of DNA worldwide, would go against this strict regulatory framework, and will not be allowed. Yet the fact that, apparently, no action will be taken against people using the UK service, seem to suggest that it seems unlikely that such tests will be used in France for sex selection. Indeed, Le Monde quotes Laurent Toulemon, a demographer specialised in family and fertility issues ( Profile in English) at the French National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED), whose data does not show abortions being linked to the sex of babies. The fact of knowing earlier the sex of the foetus would only have a marginal effect on the sex ratio and fertility, assesses Toulemon, who concludes somehow cryptically that “the question is more political than demographic.” Sources Illustration
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