It was a short news item, buried on page 19 of the April 11, 2007 edition of the Chicago Tribune, dateline ­Strasbourg. “Woman loses rights to frozen embryos.”  Another predictable story on stem cell research in France?  But, this was not a French biotech dispute. Natallie Evans is a British woman who was left infertile after ovarian cancer treatments.  Prior to her ovaries being removed, she and Howard Johnston, her fiancé, created embryos via in vitro fertilization, and had them frozen.

Dr. D. Joy Riley, Executive Director of the Tennessee Center for Bioethics and Culture, interviews Phillipa Taylor, consultant on bioethics for the London-based organization Care.

“Is it a boy or a girl?”

Whether after a sonogram or a new birth, the first question we have about a child is almost always about the sex of the child. For millennia parents have anxiously awaited the answer to a question that underscores the mystery and uniqueness of being created male and female. But what happens when the outcome can be decided before the child even enters the mother’s womb?

Twenty five years or so ago, as a family physician in a Christian mission practice in London, I used to help out at a monthly afternoon clinic with the now dated and politically incorrect name: “Handicapped Fellowship.” Patients with various physical and mental disabilities would be transported in by church members to receive health care, and would then enjoy a British afternoon tea, some entertainment, and a spiritual message.