'Gender predictor' declared illegal
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Experts and officials yesterday warned people not to purchase a new product advertised online that claims to be able to tell the gender of an unborn child in 10 minutes and with 90 percent accuracy.
They said that the product provides no scientific evidence for its claims and that predicting the gender of a fetus for reasons other than medical is against Chinese law.
The product called Intelligender is a reagent for women who have been pregnant for over six weeks. When urine is added to the solution, it changes color after 10 minutes - green for a boy, orange for a girl.
The product, which is thought to have originated in the United States, is priced at about 780 yuan (US$117.5) on its website.
The website claims that the product separates a special hormone in pregnant women that shows the genders after reacting with a medical?mixture.
Duan Tao, president of the Shanghai No. 1 Maternity and Child Health Hospital, told Shanghai Daily that the explanation had little scientific basis and the product could not have such so high accuracy rate.
"People have a 50 percent chance of getting the correct answer just by guessing the gender, and this product at most adds 10 percent more," he said.
Moreover, gender testing for non-medical reasons is illegal in China. Hospitals may do the tests only if the pregnant woman has some gender-related genetic diseases, he added.
The two main ways to test for gender in hospitals are DNA testing and Type-B ultrasonic checks. DNA testing accurately reveals the gender, while the ultrasonic check is only used after women have been pregnant for five months.
The Shanghai Food and Drug Administration will not issue a license to allow the sale of the Intelligender as it violates Chinese law, said Du Bing, an official with the administration.
Advertisements for the products were posted on many online shopping websites and on baby care bulletin board services in the city, causing heated discussions.
A netizen called "beautiful mom" said that she was told she would have a boy after using the product, which was the same outcome as that of a type-B ultrasonic check at hospital.
However, another netizen said that she got two different outcomes after using the product - it predicted a boy at 11 weeks, but a girl when she tested again at 19 weeks.
The product's company said it would not compensate buyers if the prediction was wrong because it did not claim 100 percent accuracy.
Under Chinese law, gender prediction on unborn babies and abortions based on the prediction without the permission of health authorities is prohibited and any organization which made the predictions or gave abortions face criminal charges.
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