Oxford MP Evan Harris has sparked outrage by calling for parents to be allowed to choose the sex of their baby.

Oxford MP Evan HarrisIn a highly controversial report published today, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon was one of only five members of the Commons Science and Technology Select Committee to support the recommendation.

In a rare move, the other five members of the committee have refused to back the report, which has riled ethics groups and social conservatives.

It calls for changes towards the creation of "designer" babies, and embryonic cloning.

Dr Harris, a former junior doctor at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, stood by the report in the face of a growing storm.

He told the Oxford Mail: "The state must have good reasons for seeking to interfere or discriminate in the exercise of reproductive liberty by competent adults.

"Parliament needs to ensure that there is adequate ethical and regulatory oversight of medical treatment in this area, but does not need to duplicate the role of ethics committees or medical regulators."

The report, based on 12 evidence sessions in Parliament, recommends that parents who want to balance their families can choose the sex of their unborn child.

It also questions the merits of the reproductive cloning ban, which it says cannot be justified without further debate of the "fundamental issues".

But other members of the committee, who boycotted the final vote, claimed it had little regard to ethics.

Labour MP Geraldine Smith, said: "It seems like anything goes as long as it's science."

David King, director of ethics group Human Genetics Alert, added: "The kind of ethics we see in this report, which is incapable of saying a clear no to anything, is no ethics at all.

"The extreme bias in this report discredits the committee and the political cause it is espousing."

But Ian Gibson, the chairman of the Commons committee who was also one of the five MPs to sign off the report, said that the findings were "thoroughly researched and considered".

The report backed the 1984 Warnock Report, which recognised the "special status" of the early human embryo, but acknowledged the changing attitudes of the last 21 years.

It states that parents' reproductive decisions should only be limited where there is evidence of harm to individuals or society. It also recommends that embryos should be kept for 14 days for medical research.

Dr Harris added: "This report sets a coherent and principled basis for governing IVF, other forms of human reproductive technologies and the use of early human embryos for research within the existing Warnock approach.

"The law should specify what sort of embryos should be allowed to be implanted in the womb for reproductive purposes, and lay down the 14-day limit on the use of embryos in medical research.

"But, beyond that, research should be regulated and ethically over-viewed as it is in other areas of research on human subjects."