Baby Gender Mentor
Blood test designed for prenatal sex discernment / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Baby Gender Mentor is the trade name of a controversial blood test designed for prenatal sex discernment. The test was manufactured by Acu-Gen Biolab, Inc., a biotech company in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States.[1][2][3][4] The test made a media debut on 17 June 2005 on The Today Show[5][6][7] and it was featured in Newsweek in October 2005.[2][8] About 4,500 people had purchased the test by March 2006.[9]
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The test claimed that it offered an alternative to amniocentesis and ultrasound.[10] Gender Mentor claimed that women had many motivations for using the test to learn the sex of their fetuses early in pregnancy, including mental preparation and planning gender-specific purchases, or more controversially, sex-selective abortion.[11][12]
Customers and scientists have questioned the accuracy of the test.[13][14][15] Legal actions were taken against Acu-Gen and their supplier. The lawsuits claimed that Acu-Gen's products do not accurately predict the sex of the baby. In their defense, Acu-Gen stated that ultrasound prediction of the sex of a fetus is not always accurate, and told one family their baby had gender abnormalities.[1][9][14][16][17]
Women were instructed to prick their finger to draw a small amount of blood, which was placed on a card to be sent to Acu-Gen to be analyzed for US$250.[16][18] The kit did not require regulation since it did not diagnose, prevent or treat a disease.[19] The company was not obliged to disclose results of tests.[20]
Acu-Gen listed studies related to detecting fetal blood cells present in maternal circulation, but studies did not refer specifically to the Baby Gender Mentor test.[21] The company claimed that their kit could detect twins.[22]