Gender Selection
Some sperm banks enable recipients to choose the gender of their child. Although the methods used do not guarantee 100% success, the chances of being able to select the gender of a child are held to be considerably increased.
One of the processes used is the 'swim up' method, whereby a sperm extender is added to the donor's freshly ejaculated sperm and the test-tube is left to settle. After about half-an-hour, the lighter Y chromosome sperm will have swum to the top, leaving the heavier 'x' chromosome sperm at the bottom, thus allowing selection and storage according to gender.
The alternative process is the Percoll Method which is similar to the 'swim up' method but involves additionally the centrifuging of the sperm in a similar way to the washing of samples produced for IUI inseminations, or for IVF purposes.
Gender selection is not permitted in a number of countries, including the UK.
Read more about this topic: Sperm Bank
Famous quotes containing the words gender and/or selection:
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—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)
“Historians will have to face the fact that natural selection determined the evolution of cultures in the same manner as it did that of species.”
—Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989)