Vic: Women travel to Thailand to choose sex of baby
06 Dec 2008 1:39 AM
MELBOURNE, Dec 6 AAP - Victorian women are travelling to Thailand to circumvent IVF sex-choice laws and pick the sex of their babies.
Trips costing up to $10,000 are being undertaken by mothers desperate to choose the gender of their babies after the practice was overruled by the Australian Health Ethics Committee in 2004.
Doctors face jail in Victoria for assisting with sex selections, despite women attending clinics and asking for assistance.
Thailand's medical council does not condone sex selection but several Thai clinics offer the service as a cheaper alternative to the US, where the practice is allowed, the Herald Sun newspaper reported.
Melbourne IVF chief executive Dr Lyndon Hale says he refused a number of women seeking assistance in the last year and only directed them to look on the internet for information.
"We would tell them (about Thailand)," Dr Hale said. "We would suggest you get on the web and make your own arrangements."
