Foes call it 'consumer eugenics' and say it opens the door to a future where parents will choose their babies' hair color, eye color and potential to grow tall enough to play basketball.

Well-off foreign couples are getting around laws banning sex selection in their home countries by coming to American soil -- where it's legal -- for medical procedures that can give them the boy, or girl, they want.

"Some people spend $50,000 to $70,000 for a BMW car and think nothing of it, but this is a life that's going to be with us forever," said Robert, an Australian who asked that his last name not be used to protect the family's privacy.

He and his wife, Joanna, have two boys. Now they want a girl. Australia allows gender selection of embryos only to avoid an inherited disease.

Helping Nature?

The United States' lack of regulation means a growing global market for a few fertility clinics. These businesses advertise in airline magazines or post Web sites aimed at luring clients worldwide. Opponents say this amounts to medical tourism for designer babies and should awaken lawmakers.

But one doctor who offers embryo selection for about $20,000 says he is serving the marketplace and helping nature, not playing God. People will be less alarmed as sex selection becomes more routine, said Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg of the Fertility Institutes of Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

"It's new. It's scary. We understand that," Steinberg said. His Web site features an image of a Chinese flag alongside information about sex selection.

The Web page on sex selection generates 140,000 hits a month from China, he said, and the only country outpacing China's interest is Canada.

Catering to Gender Bias

Here's how the procedure usually works: Once the woman produces eggs, she and her husband fly to the United States. In the US clinic, the eggs are extracted, fertilized with the husband's sperm and monitored while they grow to eight cells each. A lab technician extracts one cell from each embryo for genetic analysis.

If it's the preferred gender, it will be implanted in the client's womb along with one or two other embryos, all selected for gender, to increase chances of a successful pregnancy. The client decides whether unused embryos will be frozen, donated for research or destroyed.

Foes call it "consumer eugenics" and say it opens the door to a future where parents will choose their babies' hair color, eye color and potential to grow tall enough to play basketball. US doctors are catering to the same gender bias that has led to female infanticide in China and India, opponents said.

"What you're saying is it's better you don't exist than be the wrong gender for my family. And that's a shocking assertion," said Matthew Eppinette, director of research at the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, a Christian bioethics group.

The method can prevent sex-linked inherited diseases. But when it's used solely to help a couple get a coveted girl or round out a family of daughters with a wanted son, the practice is controversial. "We don't do that. Sex is not a disease," snapped Yury Verlinsky, director of the Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago.