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Cross-Border Sex Selection

Cross-Border Sex Selection. Trait and Sex Selection The Tarrytown Meetings (July 25-27, 2011) Rajani Bhatia. Technologies. MicroSort – sperm sexing via flow cytometry (combined with IUI or IVF) Preimplantation genetic diagnosis ( PGD ) – embryo sexing (combined with IVF).

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Cross-Border Sex Selection

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  1. Cross-Border Sex Selection Trait and Sex Selection The Tarrytown Meetings (July 25-27, 2011) Rajani Bhatia

  2. Technologies • MicroSort – sperm sexing via flow cytometry (combined with IUI or IVF) • Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) – embryo sexing (combined with IVF)

  3. Contemporary Sex Selection constructed as… • a western practice • with white women subjects with strong desires for girls • NOT India or China • NOT sex selective abortion or infanticide

  4. Mainstream Representations “Unlike much of the rest of the world, Americans do not prefer boys.” (Lisa Belkin, “Getting the Girl,” in The New York Times Magazine, 1999) • “So You Want a girl?” (Wadman in Fortune, 2001) • “Going for the Girl” (des Jardins in Parenting, 2001) • “I’ll Have a Girl, Please” (American Public Media/Marketplace, 2006)

  5. Dearth of Data – No reliable evidence of girl preference Of 92 couples who underwent sex selective PGD at The Center for Human Reproduction (NY) between January 2004 and December 2006, 36 selected girls, and 56 boys. “Gender selection choices were to a statistically significant degree dependent on the couple’s ethnicity….” (Gleicher and Barad, Human Reproduction, 2007)

  6. Patients Cross Borders At one U.S. clinic, 60 % of sex selection patients come from abroad, mainly • Canada (including immigrants from China, Albania and Armenia) • China • England • But also from Nigeria

  7. Patients Cross Borders At the other U.S. clinic, 50% of sex selection patients come from abroad, mainly • Australia • England • India • China • South Korea • Canada (including 1st generation immigrants from China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan and Central Asian Republics) • But also wealthy, upper class from Central Asian Republics (Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan) and Nigeria

  8. How does this take place? • Clinic to clinic provider networks • Divisibility of lengthy technological processes into movable parts

  9. MicroSort Providers Crossing Borders 1992 GIVF Institute gets exclusive 17 year license to commercialize USDA developed sperm sorting method in humans 1993 trial begins for medical indication 1995 trial expands to “family balancing” 1999 FDA extends authority over the trial 2008 trial reaches sample size of 1,050 babies and ends 2009 GIVF Institute due to lose exclusive license but get 1 year extension 2009 GIVF launches MicroSort International and opens labs in Guadalajara, Mexico City 2010 GIVF loses exclusive license and FDA prohibits continued access to the technology for “family balancing” while it makes a determination on the technology’s safety and efficacy in the U.S. 2011 MicroSort International expanding to Dubai?, Cyprus lab opening soon

  10. PGD Providers Crossing Borders U.S. –provider team travels to Mexican satellite clinic about every 7 weeks. Cells are sent back to U.S. for PGD analysis.

  11. Concluding Remark Until we have a more accurate picture of who goes for sex selection and why, we should question the East/West binary created within mainstream narratives that has produced a hierarchy of good vs. bad sex selection practices. It is minimally important, therefore, to demand the collection of better information and statistics related to the supply and demand of sex selection, in conjunction with other services provided at fertility clinics in the U.S.

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