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German doctors protest about firm offering fetal sex tests in early pregnancy

BMJ 2007; 334 doi: 10.1136/bmj.39170.736412.DB (Published 5 April 2007)
Cite this as: BMJ 2007;334:712.1

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  1. Annette Tuffs
  1. Heidelberg

    Clinical geneticists and gynaecologists in Germany have expressed concerns that a private firm is offering women in the early stages of pregnancy a blood test to determine the sex of their unborn baby. The test is offered from the eighth week of pregnancy, and doctors fear that women who are not happy about the sex of their child may ask for an abortion, which is legal in Germany up to the 12th week of pregnancy and quite easily obtained.

    The firm, Plasmagen, offers the test over the internet. It tells women to ask their doctor to take a 2 ml blood sample and send it to the company's laboratory in Cologne. Test results …

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