Clinic sorts sperm for babies

Lausanne - A US clinic in Fairfax, Virginia, has produced nearly 200 designer babies with the help of a spermsorting machine.

Lausanne - A US clinic in Fairfax, Virginia, has produced nearly 200 designer babies with the help of a spermsorting machine.

The success of the technique and its relatively low cost raise the prospect of clients from the UK and Europe travelling to the US to secure the baby they want.

The procedure takes only a few hours and costs $2,000. Most of the couples who have visited the Genetics and IVF Institute in Fairfax want a girl or a boy for personal reasons, although the technique is also being used to enable couples to avoid inherited medical disorders that run in one or the other sex in their family.