Did anyone catch this last night? It was the first in a series (BBC1 I think), about couples trying to have a baby and having to go to extreme lengths to do so, hosted by Professor Robert Winston.

Last night was about 3 couples who underwent something called PGD, Professor Winston being one of the pioneers of this process. It involves harvesting the mother's eggs (preferably 10), fertilising them with the father's sperm and then checking them for either the defect which has caused abnormality in their other child or checking what sex the child is.

Two of the couples had severely handicapped babies, one of whom died at only a few months old and they desperately wanted another child. The other couple were, I would say, in their 40s and already had 4 boys (18, 17, 2 and 1) and wanted to try for a girl. As gender selection is illegal in this country, they had to go to Cyprus for the treatment.

It's on again next Monday at 9.00pm and raises some very contentious moral questions.

Saw about half of it. I really felt for the couples with the genetic problems - IVF is hard enough already even without the added difficulty of having to reject defective embryos. I felt sorry too for the couple that wanted the girl, but personally I don't agree with sex selection.

This was my dilemma too, Mik. The lady, in particular, obviously felt that this was her last chance to have a little girl. To be told that the embryo was a girl and then to find out that she wasn't pregnant must have been a huge blow.

I suppose that in both this case and the case of the couple with the disabled little girl, the only good thing to come of this is that they now have some sort of closure and can get on with their lives.