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 "In Chinese tradition, a girl and a boy means good, perfect," said
the mother, who requested anonymity. "There's nothing wrong with
girls, but in Hong Kong and Chinese tradition all families like
boys."
The mother is one of hundreds of women from mainland China, Hong
Kong and Australia who visit Bangkok each year for in vitro
fertilization (IVF) with the option of choosing the child's gender
by discarding fertilized eggs, or embryos, of the unwanted sex. The
only other countries where the technique is permitted and available
are the United States and South Africa - in both cases at a higher
financial cost.
The dozen or so clinics that offer the service in Bangkok say it
gives parents the chance to "balance" the genders in their growing
families, but medical authorities want the practice banned.
The Medical Council of Thailand, an independent agency that
supervises the country's medical system, says it could encourage
embryo trafficking.
Still, its efforts to stop IVF gender selection have been
complicated by a number of factors. It has no powers to prevent
clinics providing the service because there is no law governing its
practice in Thailand. Despite years of lobbying, the issue has
remained low on the list of political priorities for successive
governments – a point underlined by Thailand's latest political
upheaval and military coup.
In standard IVF practice, a woman's eggs are removed and fertilized
before being returned to the womb. In gender selection IVF, only
embryos of the desired gender are implanted, a practice mostly
shunned amid concerns about couples making a choice on the right to
life based on gender.
"Sex selection for non-medical reasons is not encouraged, but
neither is it prohibited in the U.S., according to the latest
guidelines," the American Medical Association says on its Website.
As in Thailand, South Africa currently has no legal provision
governing the technique.
The business is estimated to be worth about $150 million last year,
according to one Hong Kong agent who organizes gender selection
packages. Demand is growing about 20 percent a year, some Thai
providers told Reuters, with the number of clinics rising to meet
it.
IN LIMBO
With parliament dissolved since last December and an army government
now in power, calls for legislation remain in limbo. Thailand's
Health Ministry referred questions to the Royal Thai College of
Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the only agency in the country
which gathers specialized information about IVF treatment.
Prof. Clin. Wiboolphan Thitadilok, president of the college, said
the agency is working on a fresh set of recommendations on IVF
treatment in general. "We have worked to put this issue into law for
more than 10 years" she told Reuters. "It's not an issue that
politicians will pay much attention to."
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Thailand now has 44 IVF clinics in total, with seven new facilities
opened last year and two or three applications for new clinics being
submitted every month, according to the college.
The Asian country has become the go-to destination for Chinese
couples not willing to leave the gender of their baby to chance.
They pay fees that can run close to $30,000 in some cases for
packages including a cycle of treatment lasting two to three weeks.
10,000 TREATMENTS A YEAR
Alfred Siu Wing-fung, a Hong Kong agent selling Bangkok gender
selection packages to about 200 Chinese couples a year, said as well
as people from poorer rural areas his business, Eden Hospitality,
had strong demand from wealthy professionals wanting certainty about
their offspring.
Siu estimates about 10,000 gender selection cycles were carried out
in Bangkok last year, at an average cost of $15,000 per treatment.
While medical equipment and drugs are imported, clinics are staffed
mostly by Thai doctors and nurses trained overseas.
He offers two packages: 280,000 Thai baht ($8,700) for a basic
service including flights and accommodation, and 900,000 baht
($27,800) for VIP treatment, including nannies and catering.
Interest is growing in Australia, where gender selection treatment
is unavailable. Dr Robert Woolcott, director of Genea Ltd, the
third-largest IVF company in Australia, said Genea routinely
recommends that couples wishing to choose the gender of their baby
visit Bangkok's Superior A.R.T. (for Assisted Reproductive
Technology), a clinic it partly owns.
Overall, Australians numbering "in the hundreds per year" travel to
Thailand for gender selection, Woolcott told Reuters.
Back in Hong Kong, the mother, now 28 with a healthy 18-month-old
son, is planning for her third child. She probably won't go back to
Bangkok.
"I think the third one should be natural," she said.
($1=32.3500 Thai Baht) ($1=1.0639 Australian Dollars)
(Additional reporting by Shanghai newsroom and Manunphattr
Dhanananphorn in BANGKOK; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
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