Health Minister Caroline Flint reportedly told Parliament she intends to introduce a "clear and specific ban" on the use of new techniques to choose one gender of baby, warning that allowing parents to pick sex for reasons such as "balancing" the make-up of their family could be the start of a "slippery slope" to designer babies.
Flint also indicated that rules allowing fertility clinics to block treatment for single women and lesbian couples could be scrapped, such as present regulations including the need for a father in considerations of the future child's welfare.
Other measures set to be part of the reforms include new criteria on what medical conditions embryos can be screened for.
At present pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is licensed to let parents who carry genes for a serious condition - such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease - avoid passing the faulty gene on to their children.
However, it is now also possible to test embryos for some cancers caused by a "lower penetrance" gene - meaning not everyone who inherits the faulty gene will go on to develop the disease.
Giving evidence to the Commons science and technology committee, Ms Flint also rejected calls for a review of the abortion time limit.
Professional bodies had presented no scientific evidence to back demands for an inquiry into whether the present 24-week limit should be shortened.
