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The Israeli National Committee for sex selection by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis: a novel approach (2005–2011)
BACKGROUND: Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for fetal sex selection raises complex dilemmas. In Israel, PGD is regulated by the Ministry of Health. It is basically prohibited, but exceptions can be made upon approval by the National Committee for Sex Selection by PGD for Non-Medical Reasons...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4230365/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25396044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2045-4015-3-33 |
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author | Pessach, Nirit Glasser, Saralee Soskolne, Varda Barash, Amihai Lerner-Geva, Liat |
author_facet | Pessach, Nirit Glasser, Saralee Soskolne, Varda Barash, Amihai Lerner-Geva, Liat |
author_sort | Pessach, Nirit |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for fetal sex selection raises complex dilemmas. In Israel, PGD is regulated by the Ministry of Health. It is basically prohibited, but exceptions can be made upon approval by the National Committee for Sex Selection by PGD for Non-Medical Reasons (the “Committee”). This report describes the Committee’s work since its inception in May, 2005 through December, 2011. METHODS: Files were abstracted onto a structured form. Discrete variables were analyzed by chi-square analysis, and continuous variables by T-Test. RESULTS: During the study period 411 applications were received. Two-thirds of the applicants (n = 276; 67.2%) were Jewish and 26.8% were Moslem Arab. Over two-thirds (n = 285; 69.3%) had no children of the requested sex and ≥4 children of the opposite sex. Three-quarters of the requests were for a male (n = 308; 74.9%): 100% of Arab and 63% of Jewish applicants. Many noted more than one reason for their request. The most frequent category (n = 201; 48.9%) was a strong emotional desire, followed by medically-related reasons (n = 83; 20.2%). For 216 applications a decision was arrived at, with 46 (21.3%) approved. Of the remaining 195 for 192 over a year had passed since last contact with the Committee. The likelihood of approval was higher if applicants met the criterion of ≥4 same-sex children than if they didn’t (33.7% vs. 11.6%, P = 0.001). The largest number of approvals were those requested for ‘emotional’ reasons, while the highest approval rate was for religious reasons. CONCLUSIONS: This study reviewed the first seven years of Committee activity. Most requested males, and the primary reason was the parents' intense emotional desire. Only one-fifth of the decisions were approvals, possibly reflecting reluctance to encourage non-medically-indicated PGD, a viewpoint not unique to Israel. Limitations include the relatively small number of cases and lack of access to Committee deliberation protocols. It is recommended that longitudinal studies be conducted to gain insight into the consequences to individuals, couples and families--both those whose requests were approved and those denied-- of this major step in reproductive technologies and in society’s effort to respond to them. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4230365 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-42303652014-11-14 The Israeli National Committee for sex selection by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis: a novel approach (2005–2011) Pessach, Nirit Glasser, Saralee Soskolne, Varda Barash, Amihai Lerner-Geva, Liat Isr J Health Policy Res Original Research Article BACKGROUND: Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for fetal sex selection raises complex dilemmas. In Israel, PGD is regulated by the Ministry of Health. It is basically prohibited, but exceptions can be made upon approval by the National Committee for Sex Selection by PGD for Non-Medical Reasons (the “Committee”). This report describes the Committee’s work since its inception in May, 2005 through December, 2011. METHODS: Files were abstracted onto a structured form. Discrete variables were analyzed by chi-square analysis, and continuous variables by T-Test. RESULTS: During the study period 411 applications were received. Two-thirds of the applicants (n = 276; 67.2%) were Jewish and 26.8% were Moslem Arab. Over two-thirds (n = 285; 69.3%) had no children of the requested sex and ≥4 children of the opposite sex. Three-quarters of the requests were for a male (n = 308; 74.9%): 100% of Arab and 63% of Jewish applicants. Many noted more than one reason for their request. The most frequent category (n = 201; 48.9%) was a strong emotional desire, followed by medically-related reasons (n = 83; 20.2%). For 216 applications a decision was arrived at, with 46 (21.3%) approved. Of the remaining 195 for 192 over a year had passed since last contact with the Committee. The likelihood of approval was higher if applicants met the criterion of ≥4 same-sex children than if they didn’t (33.7% vs. 11.6%, P = 0.001). The largest number of approvals were those requested for ‘emotional’ reasons, while the highest approval rate was for religious reasons. CONCLUSIONS: This study reviewed the first seven years of Committee activity. Most requested males, and the primary reason was the parents' intense emotional desire. Only one-fifth of the decisions were approvals, possibly reflecting reluctance to encourage non-medically-indicated PGD, a viewpoint not unique to Israel. Limitations include the relatively small number of cases and lack of access to Committee deliberation protocols. It is recommended that longitudinal studies be conducted to gain insight into the consequences to individuals, couples and families--both those whose requests were approved and those denied-- of this major step in reproductive technologies and in society’s effort to respond to them. BioMed Central 2014-10-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4230365/ /pubmed/25396044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2045-4015-3-33 Text en © Pessach et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Article Pessach, Nirit Glasser, Saralee Soskolne, Varda Barash, Amihai Lerner-Geva, Liat The Israeli National Committee for sex selection by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis: a novel approach (2005–2011) |
title | The Israeli National Committee for sex selection by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis: a novel approach (2005–2011) |
title_full | The Israeli National Committee for sex selection by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis: a novel approach (2005–2011) |
title_fullStr | The Israeli National Committee for sex selection by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis: a novel approach (2005–2011) |
title_full_unstemmed | The Israeli National Committee for sex selection by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis: a novel approach (2005–2011) |
title_short | The Israeli National Committee for sex selection by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis: a novel approach (2005–2011) |
title_sort | israeli national committee for sex selection by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis: a novel approach (2005–2011) |
topic | Original Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4230365/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25396044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2045-4015-3-33 |
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