Women come to U.S. to choose baby's sex

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NEW YORK, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Baby gender selection is banned in Britain, but U.S. fertility clinics offer sex selection and family balancing to women worldwide, a doctor says.

One doctor offering the service, British-trained Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg of Fertility Clinics in New York, Los Angeles and Mexico, said he assisted 400 British women since he began offering the service a few years ago.

"New York is only a 7 or 8-hour flight from most of Europe, so it works very well for those from Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the Middle East," Steinberg told The Daily Telegraph.

Steinberg said the clinics offer pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. His Web site explained it entailed:

-- Several eggs are extracted from the mother by doctors; sperm is supplied by the father.

-- The father's sperm is used to fertilize the mother's eggs in the lab.

-- After three days, several eight-cell embryos will have developed.

-- Doctor-scientist specialists examine the genetic makeup of the embryos, screening for both genetic diseases and desired gender.

-- Healthy embryos of the gender the couple desire are implanted in the mother.

-- Any additional healthy embryos may be cryo-frozen for future use.

-- Gestation and birth take place as normal.

"However, unlike many programs offering sex selection only to very limited couples with known genetic disorders in the family we make sex selection available to all patients," the Web site said. "Parents have come to us from nearly every nation on the planet -- we have assisted patients from 147 different nations -- seeking to balance their families or assure themselves that a pregnancy will result in ONLY the gender outcome they desire."

British law only allows gender testing where there is a family history of serious physical or mental medical conditions that are gender related, the Telegraph said.