Choosing the Sex of Your Child

Besides slipping the stork some extra cash, would-be parents have a number of options for choosing the sex of their child. The methods range from the natural (such as using particular positions during intercourse) to the high-tech (such as sorting sperm).

Couples have a 50/50 chance of conceiving a boy or a girl through plain old-fashioned intercourse. Yet there are some people who might want to stack the odds in their favor, either for cultural reasons, for dreams of raising a son or a daughter, or to balance out their families. Others do it to prevent their offspring from inheriting sex-linked genetic diseases.

Whatever the reason, health experts worry that some parents will place unrealistic hopes on a sex-determination technique and become disappointed whether or not they succeed. The method could either fail to produce a baby of the desired sex, or the right-gendered kid could grow up with traits that contradict with parental expectations. In this case, ethicists worry about the welfare of the child.

In addition, no preconception approach is foolproof, according to an ethics committee report in the May 2001 issue of Fertility and Sterility. Some popular strategies reportedly even fall under the category of foolery.

Of course, this list may not necessarily include your great grandmother's "tried and true" formula for choosing the baby's sex. Some doctors just chuckle at such schemes and say that as long as the advice doesn't hurt mom or baby, then there may be no harm in trying.