A new test to reveal the gender of a fetus in early pregnancy has sparked a row over whether it will lead to sex-selection abortions.
A new test to reveal the gender of a fetus in early pregnancy has sparked a row over whether it will lead to sex-selection abortions, New Zealand Herald reported.
The American-designed IntelliGender test kit, which can be used from eight weeks after conception, went on sale in Australia last month. Its Australian distributor hopes to launch it in New Zealand within a fortnight.
David Portnoy, managing director of Melbourne-based Early Image, said that he was negotiating with health products companies Douglas Pharmaceuticals and API to supply the kits to New Zealand pharmacies. He expected they would sell for about $125.
They do not test pregnancy, so do not require approval under the Medicines Act, unlike pregnancy tests. To use the new test, a pregnant woman mixes her urine with the kit’s chemicals in the supplied container. If it turns green or black, the fetus is a boy; orange or yellow indicate a girl.
The kits are claimed to be 90% accurate, but because patents have not yet been issued, the maker will not reveal the supporting data or the science of how they work.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists is worried about what the test might lead to. “The concern we would have is that people would then terminate pregnancies on the grounds of sex selection,” said college president Dr Ted Weaver.
Anti-abortion group Voice for Life echoes this concern. Spokesman Bernard Moran said abortions for sex selection were a problem overseas and the test would facilitate this in New Zealand. “Certain ethnic minorities here might be more prone to use it.”
Moran said that although abortions were not permitted for sex selection, they were permitted on grounds of mental health of women, and the Abortion Supervisory Committee said that the way this was applied meant New Zealand, in effect, had abortion on demand.
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