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SCMP Reporter

HONG KONG'S first sex selection baby will be a boy and is due on October 28, the controversial Gender Choice Centre has announced.

  Since it opened nearly one year ago, the clinic has faced strong opposition from politicians, medical experts, and pro-life and women's groups.

  But come next year, the clinic's controversial methods are likely to be controlled by a code of conduct and licensing body introduced by the Government.

  The Gender Choice Centre's sister clinic in London celebrated its first birth last March. The first 18 births were deemed a success.

  But in the most recent, a mother of five boys who used her entire savings of $35,000 in the hope of having a daughter gave birth to son number six.

   After giving birth to a 3.5-kilogram boy, Cheryl Berryman, 31, said: 'I really hoped it would be a girl and was very upset. But then they handed him to me and I saw how beautiful he was and I felt a little bit better after that.'   The Department of Health later warned other couples about the clinic's claims that it could help couples produce children of a desired sex.

   Politicians in both Britain and Hong Kong have described the procedure as immoral and unethical. Critics in the territory have called on the Government to form a body to monitor and control scientifically-assisted human reproduction (SAHR) since the Gender Choice Centre opened.

  The clinic has more than 100 couples of different nationalities on its books and to date 10 pregnancies have been recorded.

  However, medical experts are still unsure how reliable the technique is. Selecting the sex of children is controlled in Britain, limiting it to the fertilisation of eggs in the womb, and not in a test tube.

  Derek Gould, principal assistant secretary for the Health and Welfare Department's medical division, is drafting proposals to put before the Legislative Council next May. But a provisional body and code of conduct could be in place as early as the end of the year.

  'We now have the Executive Council's approval and the next stage is to convert these proposals into draft legislation,' Mr Gould said.

  'Pending legislation, we will set up a provisional body to draft a code of conduct for such practices.

  'The Gender Choice Centre is controlled by the medical profession, but this does not cover the social and ethical issues, and this is what will be addressed under the proposals.'   Under the plans, all medical institutions carrying out SAHR procedures would have to be licensed and practise within the code of conduct.

  Dr Peter Liu Kin-shing, a Hong Kong-born biochemist, and his partner, Dr Alan Rose, a chemical pathologist, run the two centres. A baby's sex can be chosen through a process which separates male and female semen through a viscous protein called albumin. The woman is then artificially inseminated.

  The two doctors use an insemination technique developed in the US in which sperm is separated in a centrifuge. Those carrying the desired chromosome are implanted in the woman.

  Legislator Dr Leong Che-hung, chairman of the SAHR committee, said: 'We are concerned the method used by the Gender Choice Centre does not produce 100-per cent positive results.

  'Let's say a couple spend a lot of money and have a failure, the wrong gender. Do you allow them to have an abortion because the foetus is the wrong sex? To me that is immoral. Or if you decide to go through with the birth, will it put too much onus on the child because it is not the gender the parents opted for?'   Rose Wu Lo-sai, general secretary of the Hong Kong Women's Christian Council, also has reservations.

  'The committee will not include any women's groups, which I find quite disgraceful. There will be doctors and professors of ethics but most of these professions tend to be taken up by men. For the body to succeed it should be more representative,' she said.

  'These clinics do not educate people that men and women's values are equal, they just encourage sexism.

  'The deep-rooted cultural mentality of Asian families is that boys are a better economic bet.' 



High hopes for boy in gender birth