It has long been assumed the process of reversing sex selection does not happen until countries are richer than India or China are now.

ECONOMIST: Banyan

It creates lots of variations on a theme, throws away the ones it does not want, and shuffles the rest in a process akin to sex.

ECONOMIST: Advanced biofuels

At 17, he started the process of changing sex.

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Conservative blogger Rod Dreher, writing on BeliefNet.com, a Web site that covers spirituality and religion, said the same-sex marriage rulings show the Democratic process at work.

CNN: Same-sex marriage rights a step closer in District of Columbia

But a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said that if the Church of England did want to opt-in to offering same-sex marriages it could, saying a process for doing so was to be set out in the bill.

BBC: Gay marriage: MPs set to vote on proposals for the first time

Mori is to carry out a survey of 2, 000 people as part of the consultation process, but the HFEA said it was unlikely to ask if parents would use sex selection themselves.

BBC: Many parents 'would choose baby's sex'