Babies of a Specified Sex
Man has long desired to obtain progeny, both of his own and of his domestic animals, of a specified sex for various reasons. Efforts to produce zygotes and embryos of the specified sex have been remarkably successful, and some companies have emerged to fulfil this objective.

The general procedure for achieving this objective is briefly described in simple terms. In case of humans, males produces two kinds of sperms:

(i) 50% of the sperms contain X chromosome and produce female progeny on fertilization, while.

Therefore, the initial fraction of semen collected from the column contains X chromosome bearing sperms. Separation of Y chromosome containing sperms, on the other hand, is based on quinacrine staining. The success in producing male babies using this procedure is reported to be close to 90%, and so far hundreds of male children have been produced.

The techniques for producing babies of a specified sex raise some disturbing sociological and even ethical questions. One such question relates to the male: female ratio in the population. These questions have to be addressed to by each society in an effort to arrive at suitable answers.