Is Gender Selection Legal in Switzerland
This procedure, currently banned in Switzerland, is ethically controversial because embryos with certain conditions or characteristics could be discarded. Swiss law only allows sex selection of sperm in cases where one or both parents suffer from a genetic disease. In countries where sex selection is prohibited, people often travel to the United States, Mexico, Italy, Thailand, and other countries where it is legal to undergo PGD/PGS. This new phenomenon is called “reproductive tourism,” where people travel for sex selection and general infertility treatments such as IVF. In Australia, for example, the Sydney IVF clinic ended its PGD sex selection program in 2005 after the Australian Health Ethics Commission banned its use for non-medical reasons. Many Australians now travel to Bangkok for sex selection procedures. Ironically, Superior ART in Bangkok works in collaboration with Sydney IVF, its parent laboratory. Abortion on demand has only been legal in Switzerland since 2002, when a referendum approved the right to dismiss until the end of the first trimester after 12 weeks, with the costs covered by Swiss health insurance. A national scientific commission is backing a government motion to introduce stricter controls to prevent parents in Switzerland from aborting an unborn child because of its sex. MicroSort increases the likelihood of conceiving a child of a certain sex by separating sperm so that they are enriched for male or female sperm. Sorted sperm are used for intrauterine insemination (IUI) or in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Keep in mind that in a normal pregnancy, there is a process of natural selection in the womb where imperfect embryos tend not to carry it to term, so it`s mainly about how far we allow fertility specialists to intervene in this selection process by inserting only embryos that have a good chance of moving full-time. The potential of PGD goes beyond screening for hereditary diseases, but this use remains illegal. BASEL, Switzerland, May 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Preconception sperm sorting sex microSpell® will be available in Switzerland for the first time in July 2013. MicroSort was developed by the Genetics & IVF Institute in the United States and is launched in Switzerland through the Klinik fur gyn. Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine at the University Hospital Basel. The Federal Office of Public Health is responsible for legal work in the field of reproductive medicine Many parents learn the sex of the child during ultrasound examinations at the 9th week of pregnancy, before the legal period of 12 weeks for abortions. Studies conducted in the United States have shown that among patients who use MicroSort® to have a daughter, about 93% of those who became pregnant conceived a female baby. Of those who sorted by a boy, about 85 percent of those who became pregnant conceived a male baby.
Patients who want even more confidence can combine MicroSort® with preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to achieve near-100% confidence in sex selection. While high-tech sex selection methods such as PGD/PGS are relatively new, at least six countries have already banned the use of sex selection technologies: Australia, Canada, China, India, and the United Kingdom. However, the old methods of sex selection – ultrasound or amniocentesis plus abortion and infanticide – continue to be practiced around the world, especially in some Asian countries despite the ban on these procedures. For the sake of clarity, it is important to note that the new legislation in its current form is only there to help infertile couples or to protect those who are clearly susceptible to a hereditary disease. It would not allow couples to choose the sex of their child or give preference to embryos that promise special physical benefits because of their genetic signature. Swiss law only allows sex selection of sperm in cases where one or both parents suffer from a genetic disease. One solution would be to prevent doctors and hospitals from revealing the sex of the fetus unless there is a medical reason why they should. The United Nations has stated that it opposes sex selection on non-medical grounds (the medical reasons would be to prevent the transmission of genetic diseases), as has the World Health Organization (WHO), which has stated that sex selection for non-medical reasons “raises serious moral, legal and social questions.” Key issues include “the distortion of natural gender relations leading to gender imbalance” and because it can “reinforce discriminatory and sexist stereotypes against women by devaluing women” (WHO, “Gender and Genetics: Sex Selection and Discrimination”). The WHO defines sex selection as “the practice of using medical techniques to select the sex of offspring, which includes “a range of practices, including the selection of embryos for transfer and implantation after IVF and selective termination of pregnancy.” In addition, parents will soon be able to get kits at home so that they can test sex themselves. Currently, around 80,000 children are born each year in Switzerland, of which around 2,000 are the result of fertility treatment. If this extension of the law comes into force, doctors will be able to fertilize and select more embryos they want to reimplant or, more precisely, those they want to abandon or freeze. Currently, some women in Switzerland who suffer from genetic diseases terminate multiple pregnancies in order to become pregnant with a child who is not affected by their disease.
Genetic testing is only allowed in Switzerland after a baby has been conceived. Prenatal tests are often carried out in foreign laboratories that cannot be subject to Swiss law. A Lausanne couple suffered many unsuccessful attempts at assisted fertility in Paris, London, Geneva and Cape Town before finally succeeding in conceiving a healthy and happy child five years ago. It seems unfair to deprive other hopeful parents of any advantage that might improve the chances of this pleasure. On 5 June 2016, the amendments to the RMA were clearly accepted by the population and the cantons. The revision of the implementing provisions of the RMA, the Ordinance on Reproductive Medicine (RMV), has been carried out and submitted to interested parties for consultation. The test is based on the principle that sperm with the female X chromosome contain more genetic material than sperm with the male Y chromosome. With Microsort to sort sperm, a child`s sex can be predicted with 80% reliability. The Library of Parliament released its documents with arguments for and against the vote. The argument for medical intervention is based on three axes, namely that the new laws: For more information about MicroSort, see www.microsort.com or www.ivf-basel.ch.
