Chosen children: better or worse off?

This week, a British woman announced the birth of twin girls after sex selection. Nicola Chenery had the treatment in Spain after she was told that embryo screening in order to select the sex of her prospective children would be illegal in the United Kingdom.

At the time that Ms Chenery first made public her desire to have a daughter through sex selection, many commentators voiced concerns about the impact that such a technique might have upon the children that it creates. At Progress Educational Trust's sex selection conference in January, delegates discussed the impact that sex selection might have upon the children born of such techniques, when the treatment is successful, but also when it fails and a child of the undesired sex is born. Will Nicola Chenery's girls fare well knowing that they were chosen? Will her boys' welfare be compromised by knowing that their parents preferred girls or will they understand that their mother's desire for a girl in no way undermines her love for her sons?

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is due to announce the findings of its own enquiry into sex selection next week and a change in policy may follow. But what about other techniques? What are the welfare of the child issues in other areas of reproductive and genetic medicine?

One aspect of IVF treatment which has often provoked concerns about the welfare of the children born as a result is in the types of patients requesting treatment. Do single women, lesbian couples and older women, for instance, deserve the same access to treatment as young heterosexual couples? Are children conceived by these groups of patients harmed by being born into non-traditional families? Or is it time for IVF clinics turning away such patients to update their attitudes? Further, are such clinics running a high risk of facing legal challenges from patients who feel that they have been unfairly treated?

Besides the birth of children into non-traditional families, reproductive medicine - particularly where it includes genetic screening - is offering prospective parents choices over what kinds of children they have. Should embryo screening techniques, for instance, be used to create babies that are matched tissue donors for existing relatives? Should such techniques be used to deliberately create children with particular genetic conditions, such as inherited deafness, or is such a choice a step too far?

Progress Educational Trust's forthcoming conference, Chosen Children to be held in London on 25 November, will examine all these aspects of reproductive and genetic medicine and ask whether increased parental choice is damaging or beneficial to the children that are created. To register for Chosen Children or for more information, please contact the Progress Educational Trust office on 020 7278 7870 or at events@progress.org.uk.