TORONTO - Mail-order blood-testing kits that can determine the sex of a fetus early in pregnancy may be used for more than getting a jumpstart on deciding whether to paint the nursery pink or blue, says a doctors group.
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada says the results of the early tests could be used by parents to decide whether to continue the pregnancy or abort the fetus solely based on its gender.
Using the kits to choose a baby's sex through selective abortion is a practice the SOGC "is firmly against," said president Dr. Donald Davis, calling the use of tests for that purpose discriminatory and unethical.
Gender-testing kits can be purchased online from a number of companies. A pregnant woman collects and mails in a small sample of her blood, which is then tested for the baby's sex by analyzing fetal DNA in her blood. The presence of a Y chromosome would indicate the baby is a boy. (Females carry two X chromosomes.)
The tests, which cost a few hundred dollars, claim to be able to determine as early as five or six weeks after conception whether the fetus is male or female.
Amniocentesis, in which a small amount of amniotic fluid is drawn by syringe from around the fetus, can also identify the baby's sex, but it is not performed until 15 weeks into the pregnancy.
Chorionic villus sampling (CVS), in which cells are taken from the placenta, can pinpoint the sex at 10 to 12 weeks of pregnancy, but it carries a slightly higher risk of miscarriage than amniocentesis. Most therapeutic abortions are done in the first 12 weeks.
It's unknown how many Canadian parents are utilizing the mail-in gender-testing kits or for what reasons, Davis said in an interview.
"Whenever technology such as this becomes available outside the framework of the health-care system, we need to look at this as a Canadian society and as our professional society," he said.
"We don't think except in very, very rare circumstances should testing be done to identify gender. If there's a (family history of) a gender-related chromosomal abnormality, then most certainly there's reason to look at the gender and whether . . . that abnormality is present."
"But merely to decide on the future of a pregnancy by the gender, we don't think that's a healthy approach."
The SOGC unveiled its official position on the gender-testing kits Thursday, at the beginning of its six-day annual meeting in Ottawa.
Also of concern to members is the practice of "free birth," in which a women chooses to deliver her baby at home unattended by a physician or midwife as a form of natural childbirth.
"Although the SOGC supports natural childbirth, we know that childbirth can be fatal and we feel that it's most important that these patients have a skilled attendant at the bedside," said Davis.
Dr. Vyta Senikas, the society's associate executive vice-president, called these do-it-yourself births "unsafe - period."
"The people advocating this as a mainstream option for women are tragically uninformed and are promoting high-risk, dangerous behaviour disguised as sound medical advice," Senikas said in a statement. "These are not trained and educated medical professionals."
Up to 15 per cent of all births involve potentially fatal complications, and trained attendants can react to problems as they arise - both during delivery and the critical period following birth, says the SOGC.
Davis said a wide range of complications can occur during the birthing process and threaten the lives of both mother and baby - from fetal distress that would require an emergency C-section to severe maternal bleeding.
More than 500,000 women around the world die each year from such complications, most in underdeveloped and developing countries, where health-care services may be poor at best and trained professionals in short supply.
"Why would we want to take our women and put them into those 'primitive conditions?"' said Davis, referring to Canadian mothers. "It's not a healthy choice."
The fact that a half-million women worldwide still die each year in childbirth will also be discussed at an international women's health symposium being held Thursday in conjunction with the SOGC conference.
At a 1987 meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, the world's top health and development organizations set a goal for 2000 of cutting by half the number of women and infants dying needlessly during childbirth. But two decades later, the numbers remain unchanged.
"Certainly, progress has been made in many areas," said Dr. Dorothy Shaw, president of the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "But it is a humbling experience that on the 20th anniversary of these goals, we still have a half-million women dying every year."
