Aggregated News
Doctors have developed a blood test that enables mothers-to-be to learn the sex of their babies just seven weeks after conception.
Currently, women usually discover whether they are expecting a boy or girl at their second ultrasound scan, at around 20 weeks.
Many couples also decide they would rather not know until the birth.
But the simple £300 test – which causes no harm to the foetus – enables parents-to-be to find out three months earlier than the current test.
Campaigners in Britain are warning that discovering the sex at such an early stage in the pregnancy may encourage some women to abort their unborn child if they find out it is not the sex they were hoping for.
In some cultures there is pressure on mothers to give birth to boys so they continue the family line. Parts of Africa and Asian countries such as India, China and South Korea have high abortion rates of female foetuses.
The test, reportedly already available in parts of the U.S., Israel and some European countries, checks for the male ‘Y’ chromosome from...