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One doctor claimed he had assisted 400 British women since he began offering the sex selection service a few years ago. Dozens of British women a year are flying to the United States and paying thousands of pounds to select the sex of their baby, it has emerged. As gender selection is banned in the UK, couples desperate to balance their family by adding a boy or girl are flying to New York or Los Angeles. Earlier this year The Telegraph discovered that doctors were granting women illegal abortions based on the sex of their children. It led to Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, launching an inquiry. Doctors at fertility clinics check the women's fertilised eggs and then implant an embryo into them - after checking that the child will have the required gender. Patients from other parts of Europe are also jetting to the States to ensure the sex of their baby. One doctor offering the service, British-trained Dr Jeffrey Steinberg, says he currently helps around 40 British couples a year. Altogether he has assisted 400 British women since he began offering the service a few years ago. Dr Steinberg, whose main clinic is in New York: "New York is only a seven or eight-hour flight from most of Europe, so it works very well for those from Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the Middle East." Dr Steinberg offers a technique called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). | 
