A committee of MPs are split over their own controversial report which favours allowing fertility treatment parents to choose the sex of their child and rethinking the use of human cloning.

Ethics groups will today be lining up to condemn the report signed off by five members of the 10-strong Commons select committee on science and technology.

One of them, Human Genetics Alert, says the report dismisses the public's concerns about reproductive technology.

The committee also recommends that parliament should again discuss the legal basis for abortion, taking on board changes in society, science and medicine since the 1967 Abortion Act.