THE ISSUE OF SEX SELECTION IN TURKEY

In accordance with a recent decision of the High Health Council, which is the highest advisory Council of the Ministry of Health, and follow ing 6 months of debate, the clinical application of sex selection meth ods when there are no medical indications has been restricted in Turke y, The participants of the debate were the Turkish counterparts of Dr R.J.Ericsson, who is the owner of the patent of the sperm separation m ethod, the General Directorate of Mother and Child Health and Family P lanning, the Ethical Committee of the Turkish Medical Association, the Legal Consultancy of the Ministry of Health and the whole community t hrough the press and television programmes, Many reports concerning se x selection were prepared that were opposed to the application of the Ericsson method when there were no medical indications, depending on e thical and technical considerations, The debate also induced ethical d iscussions about other related subjects, such as recent improvements i n reproductive technologies, prenatal diagnosis and the Human Genome P roject.