This right is far from guaranteed in countries like China or India where the economic ramifications of having a daughter can lead to practices of female-preferential abortions and infanticides. It is into this legacy that a relatively new technology has been introduced. Last September, scientists announced they had developed a sperm-sorting method that had demonstrable success rates in achieving a pregnancy of the desired sex. Once sorted, the sperm can be used to fertilize an egg or eggs either by means of in vitro fertilization or other methods of artificial insemination. Like many genetic advances, this technology addresses an important medical need.
Males possess only one copy of the X chromosome, which is inherited from their mother.
Many think of the Y as the male chromosome and the X as the female. In truth, however, physical gender is essentially established by the presence of or absence of a gene called Testes Determining Factor, found on the Y chromosome. The chromosomes themselves are not inherently one gender or the other. In fact, the X chromosome is a relatively large chromosome containing several important, non-gender related genes. Since males have only one copy of the X, they will express all of the traits coded for on their copy of the X. Unlike females, they have no other potential chromosome to compensate for a faulty gene product.