A COUPLE who sparked a row over “designer” babies when they tried to replace their dead daughter by in vitro fertilisation have abandoned their five-year campaign to choose the sex of their child.

Alan and Louise Masterton, from Monifieth, near Dundee, desperately wanted a girl after their three-year-old daughter, Nicole, died in a garden fire in 1999.

She was the youngest of five and was born after her parents had tried for 15 years to “balance” their family of four boys.

Because sex selection is banned in Britain, the couple paid an Italian clinic £30,000 for three attempts to conceive a girl but none was successful.

Now they have decided that they are no longer prepared to risk the heartache of further unsuccessful IVF treatment.

“I feel that enough is enough. I don’t feel that I can go through the trauma of having this treatment any more,” said Louise Masterton. “Knowing that the embryos that were implanted were female, and then losing them, made me feel like I had lost more daughters.”

The Mastertons made repeated attempts to persuade the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) — which regulates fertility treatment in Britain — to allow them to use pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

The technique allows couples to choose the sex of their babies by separating male and female embryos in vitro, then implanting embryos of the chosen sex into the womb.

However, the HFEA has refused to change its policy, which only allows the use of PGD for medical reasons such as avoiding haemophilia and other disorders linked to gender.

“Unfortunately, there comes a point when you have to say, ‘That’s it’,” said Alan Masterton. “Our oldest boy is 20 and the youngest is 15 so there would be almost a generation between them if we had had another child.

“It has been harder emotionally for Louise, because at the end of the day we are talking about a horrendous tragedy that happened to our family. Every time it comes into the public eye we have to relive it and it takes its toll.

“It is sad for both of us but we were always aware that this might be the outcome. When you spend that kind of money and make that emotional commitment you hope with every sinew that it will be successful but you can’t be blind to the reality that the odds are against you.”

The Mastertons’ application to the HFEA for permission to undergo PGD at one of the five British clinics qualified to carry out the procedure was turned down in 2000, forcing them to go to the Biogenesi clinic in Rome.

In 2001, they received an apology from the HFEA for mishandling their case following a year-long investigation by the parliamentary ombudsman. However, the authority refused to overturn its decision.

“If it had been up to HFEA we would have died regretting that we never got the chance to help heal our family,” said Alan Masterton. “Now we can go on knowing that we did everything in our power. At least we got the opportunity to do what we felt was right for our family, even if it was unsuccessful.”

Although the couple have ruled out any further attempts to conceive, they said they will continue to campaign for a change in the law.

“We have given up but we will keep the cause alive and participate in any debates on the issue and the need for change in the HFEA,” Alan Masterton said.

“At least we can take some small comfort from the fact that although our endeavour hasn’t helped our family directly it has made life easier for some other couples.”

He added that it was only a matter of time before the HFEA was forced to change its policy.

“It is not a question of if PGD will be available in Britain, it is a case of when,” he said. “The public will dictate what is going to happen. You cannot undo science which is there to help people.”

Sheena Young, the head of the Infertility Support Network Scotland, said she was saddened that the Mastertons had given up their fight but understood the pressure they had been under.

“Nobody should ever underestimate the emotional impact that infertility has on people,” she said. “There is nothing worse than having a deep yearning for another child you can’t have. It is a real shame for the Mastertons but there does come a time when you have to move on. It is never an easy decision to make and while it is something that you learn to live with, it never gets any easier.”

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