Baby Gender Mentor

Baby Gender Mentor is the trade name of a controversial blood test designed for prenatal sex discernment. The test was manufactured by Acu-Gen Biolab, Inc., a biotech company in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States. The test made a media debut on 17 June 2005 on The Today Show and it was featured in Newsweek in October 2005. About 4,500 people had purchased the test by March 2006. The test claimed that it offered an alternative to amniocentesis and ultrasound. Gender Mentor claimed that women had many motivations for using the test to learn the sex of their fetuses early in pregnancy, including mental preparation and planning gender-specific purchases, or more controversially, sex-selective abortion. Customers and scientists have questioned the accuracy of the test. Legal actions were taken against Acu-Gen and their supplier. The lawsuits claimed that Acu-Gen's products do not accurately predict the sex of the baby. In their defense, Acu-Gen stated that ultrasound prediction of the sex of a fetus is not always accurate, and told one family their baby had gender abnormalities. Women were instructed to prick their finger to draw a small amount of blood, which was placed on a card to be sent to Acu-Gen to be analyzed for US$250. The kit did not require regulation since it did not diagnose, prevent or treat a disease. The company was not obliged to disclose results of tests. Acu-Gen listed studies related to detecting fetal blood cells present in maternal circulation, but studies did not refer specifically to the Baby Gender Mentor test. The company claimed that their kit could detect twins. The test was featured on an episode of The Today Show in June 2005. In that show, Katie Couric interviewed a woman named Holly Osburn who was mother to two daughters and expecting. Osborn said that she wanted to know the gender because she wanted to paint the nursery blue. Sherry Bonelli, the CEO of PregnancyStore.com was also interviewed and said that the test had only been available for two weeks and that numerous people had inquired about it in a short time.