An Instagram influencer from Australia is being criticized for traveling overseas to undergo IVF, specifically so she can choose the sex of the baby. This is not allowed in Australia, and despite pushback, she said she went public with her story to encourage others to do the same.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Single mom and Australian Instagram influencer Caitlin Bailey traveled to the U.S. to have sex-selective IVF to ensure a baby girl — something that is illegal in Australia.
- Australia bans sex selection to prevent gender imbalances and because of ethical concerns.
- Bailey is encouraging others in Australia to find an IVF doctor willing to do sex selection outside the country.
- IVF treats children as commodities or products to be created on demand and then selected for certain traits.
THE DETAILS:
Caitlin Bailey announced that she had traveled to the United States and paid $45,000 to undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) so she could ensure her fourth baby is a girl. Bailey is a single mother, and currently has two sons and one daughter. Yet she said she had always wanted two boys and two girls, and decided to make sure that happened.
“People don’t know me. The media will take what they want to take. I’d be silly to think they’re not going to do that. I can assure you that I’m a good person and I love my kids. I would do anything for my children; at the end of the day they are the most important thing in the world to me. I’m not doing this to make other people upset or cause controversy,” she told The Fox’s Fifi, Fev, & Nick podcast.
“I purely made this choice for me,” she added. “There are so many different arguments and opinions. It does hurt my feelings when I see negative comments. I don’t want that, and I don’t mean to hurt these people.”
While she claimed she wasn’t specifically telling people to undergo gender selection, she said she wants to make sure they know it’s available. “We’ve got the technology and medical advancement to make this an option,” she said.
As this is illegal in Australia, Bailey worked with Gender Selection Australia, who connected her with Daniel Potter, a California doctor. Using a sperm donor, she had embryos created, and only had female embryos implanted. Gender Selection Australia has a goal of helping Australians “complete their families by choosing the gender of their baby.”
Human rights expert Paula Gerber from Monash University’s Law Faculty told PEOPLE that sex-selective IVF was banned due to its ethical concerns, and to prevent an imbalanced gender ratio.
“Legitimizing sex selection is contrary to our societal values around diversity, equality and the intrinsic worth of every individual,” she said. “Other ethical concerns relate to the commodification of children; treating them as products tailored to parental preference, rather than as individuals who are unconditionally loved and accepted for who they are.”
And this is exactly what Gerber has done.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Rather than treating children as individual human beings, Gerber has turned them into literal products, to be manufactured and created on demand solely to fulfill her own desires. Meanwhile, she’s also intentionally depriving her children of their father, their heritage, and their background — to fulfill her own desires.
