(Our Tech Blog) From a recent study, it was a simple blood test can be used to determine the sex of the baby, in just seven weeks of pregnancy.In that study, researchers examined 57 studies of fetal DNA from about 6,500 pregnant women. The result is then dipubikasikan in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Quoted by VIVAnews, from the New York Times, Friday, August 12, 2011, from the analysis of fetal DNA testing in the blood of the mother, if the Y chromosome is present, it will have a boy. If not, then the fetus is female.
According to researchers, these findings could help parents who are worried about diseases related to gender. However, this test can also be abused others.
Researchers said the results of this test could be good news to parents whose offspring at risk of rare diseases, gender-related genetic disorders, such as Duchenne muscular disorders in young men or Turner syndrome in girls.
Knowing the sex of a fetus early on will also help parents determine whether they should undergo genetic testing is expensive. However, this also creates opportunities surrounding the selective abortion of unwanted sex.
In China or India, known unisexual female fetuses are often aborted because they prefer boys.
Researchers hope that, in the future, an institution which held a blood test such services in advance to ask parents to sign a waiver stating that they will not use it for the purpose of abortion.