ABSTRACT
In 1968, New York sociologist Amitai Etzioni predicted that if a simple and safe method of sex selection for males became available, investors would promote it because of its mass-market potential. If sex selection is to occur later in the reproductive cycle, it requires abortion. In the first trimester, methods are under development to sex fetal cells in maternal blood. Physician John Stephens's commercial method of sex selection, in contrast, is effective, although it requires selective abortion. The commercialization of sex selection demonstrates that entrepreneurs in a market economy typically will try to turn a profit whatever the technology and associated ethical questions. Methods of ensuring fetal sex before conception, most of which are unreliable, involve the separation and the elimination or enhancement of femaleand male-determining sperm. In the 1990s some doctors in in vitro fertilization clinical practice adopted certain techniques purported to select sex.
