NHS doctors ‘sending couples abroad for gender selection IVF banned in the UK’

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AN NHS consultant has been reportedly been exposed charging couples for advice on how to choose the sex of their babies – which is banned in the UK.

Dr Rafet Gazvani is one of at least four senior British doctors who offered to refer would-be parents to "designer baby" clinics overseas, according to an investigation by the Daily Mail.

Hundreds of British couples are choosing the sex of their children and pay up to £14,000 for the privilege, according to the Mail report today.

It filmed British doctors at private consultations in London’s Harley Street and around the country.

They recommending clinics in Dubai and Cyprus to carry out the final procedure, in which IVF embryos are screened to see if they are male or female before being implanted.

The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority allows gender selection only for medical reasons, to prevent serious hereditary diseases. The practice is illegal for "social" reasons.

The fertility watchdog has started an investigation after the Mail’s findings.

One medic filmed by the newspaper was Dr Gazvani, a consultant gynaecologist at Liverpool Women's Hospital who also has private patients.

He reportedly told undercover reporters he would refer them to a clinic in Northern Cyprus where they could choose to have a baby girl.

And he reportedly said he would arrange blood tests, scans and medication when the mother returned to the UK.

He denied wrongdoing last night. He told the Mail: "I understand some people may have moral issues relating to gender selection in fertility treatment.

"However, during the consultation when these were discussed I did try to emphasise that there are many reasons people may choose to undergo such treatment abroad and that is an individual's choice.

"The consultations and treatments I provide are entirely legal and are completely separate from my NHS work."

Three of the four doctors filmed by the Mail indicated there was no need for couples to tell

The chairman of the Royal College of GPs told the paper this advice should “set alarm bells ringing”.