History of Gender Selection in Human Embryos Throughout human history, the gender of a newborn baby has mostly been a welcome surprise and uncontrollable aspect of the life cycle. Technological advances have allowed parents to not only know the sex of their baby before birth, but also to choose the sex of the baby before it is implanted in the uterus. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has been available since the early 1990s after Alan Handyside and his colleagues successfully identified and implanted female embryos for several couples at risk for X-linked recessive diseases (Handyside, 1990). Each cell in the human body contains 46 packages of DNA known as chromosomes, divided into 23 pairs. One of these pairs contains sex chromosomes. Women have two X chromosomes while men have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. The factor that determines the sex of a baby is which sperm from the man reaches the female egg. About half of a man's sperm contains X chromosomes that produce females, while the other half contains Y chromosomes that produce males; whichever type of sperm reaches the egg first wins the gender battle. But new methods, some of which remain under question within the medical community, seek to control the coin flip (Onion, April 26). The three factors we will explore are: the legal, moral and ethical perspective on gender selection. Do the consequences of actions always address what is morally required? What should happen when two principles conflict? For example, should patient autonomy be considered more important than beneficence? Are moral and ethical rules always binding or are they just guidelines to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis? The final topic to explore is society's acceptance... at the center of the card... of attitudes. Fertil Steril, 85,6: 1638-‐45. Klitzman, R. (2008). Anticipating issues related to the growing use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis: a research agenda. Reprod Biomed Online, 17, suppl.1: 33-‐42. LaFraniere, S. China's bias for newborns creates a 32 million gap. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/world/asia/11china.html?_r=0 April 10, 2009.Macer, R.J. Ethics and Prenatal Diagnosis. Journal in Genetic Disorders and the Fetus: Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment, eds. Milunsky, A. (John Hopkins University Press 1998) pp. 999-1024.Onion, A. Gender selection, more possible, but controversial. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story (April 26).Singularity Hub. Designer children. Like it or not, here they come. http://singularityhub.com/2009/02/25/designer-babies-like-it-or-not-here-they-come/