US Fertility Clinics Let Parents Choose Baby's Sex

Fertility clinics in the United States are helping parents pick their baby's gender.

Sex selection of babies is illegal in many countries. Since the United States is one of the few places where it's allowed, people come from all over the world to choose a boy or a girl.

Clinics use in vitro fertilization to test out embryos to find the right gender. The same test that screens for genetic diseases can also identify the embryo's sex. The costly process -- $15,000 to $20,000 a cycle -- often is not covered in insurance plans.

The Wall Street Journal reports that some couples are doing it just so they can balance out their families.

Dr. Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at New York University's School of Medicine, said he thinks it's a smokescreen for some parents.

"When you are treating the fertile in order to produce something that they prefer as opposed to a disease, I do think you're really opening the door to a potential slope toward eugenics," Caplan told WSJ.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also opposes the practice.