Despite being criticized on ethical grounds, a recent study caught the attention of many for being a simple blood test to identify the gender of a womb. Though it’s legal in the US, globally the issue of gender preference is being dealt with strong opposition. It’s being widely believed that knowing the gender of a baby as female, parents at times decide to terminate the pregnancy.

After examining 57 published studies of gender testing done in rigorous research or academic settings, the researchers claimed that a simple blood test could help to identify the sex of a baby within seven weeks into the pregnancy.

“As hard as it may be for some people to comprehend, there can be good and bad reasons to end a pregnancy. Gender preference is a bad reason” revealed Dr. Artur Caplan, Ph. D, about the results of the study on Tuesday.

Nonetheless, the results of the test are 95% – 99% accurate; the technique is being dubbed as “troubling technology”.

Amid mass criticism, Joseph Biggio, Director of the Trimester Genetics Screening Clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, claimed that this study would pave way for a less invasive treatment to detect abnormalities and/or to determine the gender of the fetus.