Science and Technology Committee

I fail to see the difficulty here. There exist a large number of regulated drugs, some of which are more easily available in other countries and could thus potentially be purchased via the internet. However, this problem does not keep us from restricting who is allowed legal access to such drugs. A potential difficulty in criminalizing such a pill might be that the user group is one which we prefer not to criminalize – young families. Yet, this consideration in itself does not constitute a good reason for lowering the regulatory bar.

I suspect that the regulation of drugs is done on the basis of safety and efficacy. Would the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency have to make ethical judgements on all the drugs they license if they ruled on this pill? At present its job is to ensure that "medicines, healthcare products and medical equipment meet appropriate standards of safety, quality, performance and effectiveness, and are used safely".

Dr Alun Roberts
Committee Specialist
Science and Technology Committee

I do not see any moral difference between this and the Chinese exposure of female babies. And what would happen if there was a general societal preference for one gender?

Clearly this kind of scenario would be almost impossible to regulate. Ideally it would not be permitted though and the current welcome ban on sex selection (except for serious medical disorders) through the HFEAct should be replicated where appropriate in order to regulate and prevent this as far as possible.

I think in theory this would be a much more humane way to choose the sex of your child than the situation in certain countries where babies of certain sex are often abandoned or murdered because the parents wanted a boy rather than a girl (for example).
It will also lower the number of abortions (particularly backstreet abortions) carried out in such situations (for example, in China)where a particular sex is preferred and it is illegal to have more than one child.
Obviously it would be more ideal if parents were to accept and love their child regardless of sex, but unfortunately we do not live in an ideal world. I personally find the idea quite fascinating.

The whole issue of the child as a commodity, selected based on its sex, arises. I am concerned that if no consideration is given to the welfare of the child, the child is likely to suffer from all related consequences already mentioned in the various scenarios above.

In so permitting, there will be much harm the demographics in society eg cultural demand for boys may result in an imbalance in society, with more males than females existing; it encourages discrimination on a large scale and will have unknown and unforeseeable impact on economies, culture, human rights issues etc globally. It has been shown that in some areas in China and India the preferences for one sex has led to the practice of infanticide.

If it is available abroad, it will be difficult to regulate. The government should enter into treaties internationally to discourage such a practice - by ensuring that regulations on such practices be banned, and not just be regulated, such that there is eventually nowhere for the pill to be sold.