British couples are being offered the chance to choose the sex of their child in a U.S. clinic. The controversial practice – known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) – is banned in this country, except in cases where it could signal genetic disease. The American laws on sex selection changed in 2001 leading to medical centres offering ‘family balancing services’. According to The Telegraph, the Pope has highlighted an ‘obsessive search for the perfect child’ and warned that a ‘new mentality is creeping in that tends to justify a different consideration of life and personal dignity’.