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

doi:10.1136/bmj.39170.736412.DB

BMJ 2007;334:712 (7 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39170.736412.DB

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

Annette Tuffs

Heidelberg

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

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

The firm, Plasmagen, offers the test over the internet. It tellswomen to ask their doctor to take a 2 ml blood sample and sendit to the company's laboratory in Cologne. Test results areavailable within eight days after the arrival of the sampleand are sent back to the woman's doctor. The test costs ${euro}$ 149(£101; $198); money is refunded if the result proves tobe wrong.