DOCTORS CASHING IN ON ‘ILLEGAL’ DESIGNER IVF BABIES

Exposed: Consultants help send couples abroad for gender selection procedure that’s outlawed in UK

AN NHS consultant is charging couples to help choose the sex of their baby – despite gender selection being illegal in the UK.

he is among at least four senior British doctors enabling the treatment. They set up initial appointments at private clinics in harley Street and around the country before recommending centres abroad for the final procedure. An investigation by the Daily Mail suggests hundreds of British couples are choosing the sex of their child this way. They pay up to £14,000 for the privilege.

The human Fertilisation and embryology Authority last night launched a probe, saying it would be extremely concerned by the promotion of the practice.

Three of the four doctors indicated there was no need for couples to tell their GPs about gender selection – one claiming it would only

‘It’s illegal here. I send most of my couples to Dubai — we get you ready and I let them know’ CONSULTANT SARA MATTHEWS

lead to ‘a lot of aggro’. The chairman of the Royal College of GPs said this advice should ‘set alarm bells ringing’.

Allan Pacey, a Sheffield University professor who specialises in fertility, said: ‘Doctors and other healthcare professionals have a duty to care for their patients, but in my opinion this does not extend to assisting them evade UK law.’ Our investigation also reveals that: One consultant said his NHS boss would have a ‘heart attack’ over patients choosing the gender of their baby;

The procedure is said to be popular with couples of Indian heritage, who it is claimed prefer boys for ‘inheritance’ reasons;

Nine in ten white British couples who select a sex want a girl, according to one doctor;

One doctor holds consultations and initial tests for gender selection at an office in an NHS GP surgery.

Sex selection for social reasons is against the law in the UK under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 2008.

A code of conduct drawn up by watchdogs states that, for legal reasons, clinics must not ‘participate in any other practices designed to ensure that a resulting child will be of a particular sex’.

This clause has not been tested in court so it is not known whether ‘ other practices’ would include helping patients who go abroad for the procedure.

Sex selection must be done using IVF even when couples could conceive naturally.

Doctors take cells from an embryo to check for the X and Y chromosomes, which determine a baby’s sex.

They can then pick a male or female embryo to put inside the mother’s womb.

Two UK doctors offering gender selection said there was a small extra risk to embryos compared with regular IVF.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority allows gender selection only for medical reasons, to prevent serious hereditary diseases. But a booming global industry has sprung up offering ‘family balancing’. US supermodel Christine Teigen – wife of singer John Legend – admitting using gender selection for her first child, daughter Luna.

Three UK doctors offer gender selection on their websites and a fourth said her site would ‘quite openly’ say this as soon as it was ‘up and running’.

Rafet Gazvani, an NHS consultant based at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, offers it as a ‘sideline’ through his private clinic.

The consultant told undercover reporters he arranges blood tests, scans and medication in the UK and also helps pregnant women after their return. Another doctor helping with sex selection, Paul Rainsbury, told undercover reporters that telling their GP about gender selection would just cause a lot of ‘aggro’. He added: ‘I don’t even want to know who your GP is.’

Sara Matthews, a gynaecologist at London’s private Portland Hospital, sends gender selection patients to Fakih Clinic in Dubai. She told an undercover reporter: ‘It is illegal here. I send most of my couples to Dubai.’

Asked for comment, she said: ‘I have no problem in helping patients find reputable clinics, liaising with them to ensure the couple get a good quality treatment and are not misled by rhetoric or language barriers and poor lines of communication.’

A spokesman for the HFEA said: ‘Any licensed UK clinic found to be offering sex selection in the UK for non-medical reasons would automatically be in breach of the law.

‘We have no control over treatment taking place abroad. We would be extremely concerned about any HFEA licensed centre, or any individual connected to it, promoting and facilitating such treatment.

‘We will be contacting all licensed centres featured in the report, and the individuals connected with them, to fully explain the allegations.’

It would appear however that giving advice and carrying out tests is not unlawful as long as the treat-

ment is carried out abroad. Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘Patients must feel safe to disclose sensitive information about their health, or potentially impacting on their health, so to hear that some companies are advising patients not to disclose important information to their GP is deeply concerning. Any situation where you are advised not to share information should set alarm bells ringing.’

A spokesman for the General Medical Council said: ‘Sex selection on the basis of social reasons alone is illegal in the UK.

‘Doctors must work within the law and we would be very concerned to learn of instances where they have failed to do so.’

Mr Rainsbury said: ‘The GMC wishes to discourage gender selection for UK residents. This is a restriction on freedom of choice.’

For a video of doctors who help choose the sex of babies, see: www. dailymail.co.uk/genderselection