Lord Robert Winston, one of the world’s leading expert in IVF technology, has given sex selection a warm endorsement. Speaking in New Zealand, where he accepted an honorary doctorate from the University of Auckland, Winston said that the local kerfuffle about sex selection as recommended in a recent government report was unwarranted.

The Greeks and Romans did their best to influence the outcome of births. "Throughout history there's been concoctions and decoctions and potions supposed to influence the sex at conception. It argues they didn't see a moral objection to it. Why should we get so worked up about it now?" In a family with all girls or all boys, ensuring that the latest arrival is of a different sex seems eminently reasonable.

In any case, sex selection will soon be hard to police in the near future. And concerns about an imbalances in the sex ratio, as in China and India, where millions of men are finding it hard to get wives, don’t worry him. "They might, they might not. Who knows? But I don't think it's a massive issue." ~ New Zealand Herald, June 27