7 Healthcast: Baby blunder

Last year many expectant parents ordered The Baby Gender Mentor home DNA testing kit. The 275-dollar test claims it can tell you the sex of your baby at five weeks instead of the standard three to four months. A woman takes a small blood sample and sends it back to the company for testing. The results are available on-line 48-hours after the company receives the sample.

The makers of the test say it's highly accurate. In a June 2005 interview, Sherry Bonelli, from PregnancyStore.com said, "The lab is saying it's 99.9 percent. They've actually followed more than 2000 women throughout their pregnancy. They actually took the test, the lab determined the gender and they've never been wrong."

Not exactly, 16 women have filed a class action lawsuit in a Massachusetts district court against Acu-Gen Biolab in Lowell. Among the complaints: the product failed to accurately determine the sex of their baby and that the company didn't honor the money back guarantee.

The Baby Gender Mentor home DNA testing Kit is marketed over the Internet by PregnancyStore.com, which is also named in the lawsuit. Neither PregnancyStore.com nor Acu-Gen Biolab would speak to Channel 7 regarding the lawsuit. The women in the lawsuit are from ten states but more may be added.

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