Having A Child To Save Another's Life – 'Selective Breeding' Or Noble Aim?

CNSNews.com

[Bad~Rodeo]

Researchers in Australia are applying for permission to help parents conceive specially selected babies whose primary aim will be to save the life of siblings with a fatal blood disease.

The procedure, already used once - apparently successfully - in the U.S., has set off debate, as the potential benefits, risks and ethical implications are weighed against each other..

Doctors at the Monash Institute of Reproduction and Development in Melbourne are to seek approval in the days ahead on behalf of three couples, two Australian and one from New Zealand, who have children suffering from Fanconi anemia, a disorder that kills many victims before adulthood..

The couples want to undergo in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, have a suitable embryo selected, implanted into the womb and carried to term. At the birth, blood will be removed from the newborns' umbilical cord and the cells transplanted into the sick sibling..

The selection phase is two-fold - the embryo must firstly not itself carry the disease, and secondly, its tissue must match that of the sick child..

Already, screening of embryos is often carried out prior to IVF treatment, to prevent genetic abnormalities from being passed on. The procedure is called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and is opposed by many pro-lifers..

But tissue type-testing at that stage of the reproductive process has not been allowed in most countries up to now..

Prof. Alan Trounson, an IVF specialist at the Monash Center, rejected claims that what he wanted to do constituted genetic engineering. "It's cell therapy," he said, "no different from any bone marrow transplant.".

Trounson said he was confident the plan would be approved by the IVF ethics body in the state of Victoria, the Infertility Treatment Authority..

A spokesperson for the authority said it would have to assess the legality of the matter.

Named for a Swiss pediatrician, Guido Fanconi, Fanconi anemia is an inherited disorder that leads to bone marrow failure. It affects one in 300,000 children, of all ethnic backgrounds..

A successful transplant of bone marrow or umbilical cord blood cells can save the life of a sufferer. In the three couples' cases, all have been unable to find a matching donor for a marrow transplant.

Any second child they have through natural means would have a one in four chance of inheriting the defective gene from both parents - and even if it did not, it would not necessarily be able to provide a tissue match for the sick sibling.

[Notwithstanding]

Flash: Having A Child To Save Another's Life – 'Selective Breeding' Or Noble Aim?

Culture/Society Front Page News
Source: Brent Bozell's www.CNSnews.com
Published: 12-27-01 Author: Patrick Goodenough
7 comments.

SNIP: If you have five dying patients in a hospital ward, each in desperate need a particular organ donation, would you butcher one of them to save the other four? "You can't say it's unethical not to save those [four] lives," she said. "It depends on what the action is that would be necessary to do so."

10913833 posted on 12/27/01 9:52 AM pacific by Notwithstanding

[concerned about politics]

Yep. Family is important.
If bringing in another sibling to help save a family members life, I say yes. The family blood is sacred.
BUT, one should not be allowed to do so out of the immediate family. Then it loses it's porpose as a family value.
Would I kill one patient to get transplants for the other 4? No. That's murder. A bone marrow transplant is a gift, the donor still lives, and the blood remains within the family.

[Great Dane]

#3....... I agree with you.

[concerned about politics]

Yep. Family is important.
If bringing in another sibling to help save a family members life, I say yes. The family blood is sacred.
BUT, one should not be allowed to do so out of the immediate family. Then it loses it's porpose as a family value.
Would I kill one patient to get transplants for the other 4? No. That's murder. A bone marrow transplant is a gift, the donor still lives, and the blood remains within the family.

[Boxsford]

I'm not certain I'm understanding this correctly. Would you answer a few questions if you can?

#1 does the infant still live after giving blood from their cord?
#2 is the infant aborted if during testing of tissue does not match up with the patient? (this is my concern: the parents abort a babybabies that does not match up and they continue to try until they have a good match) Is this potential possible?

There is no mention of God. If odds are one in four with natural conception, why not trust God to provide the needs for the family?

[Notwithstanding]

1. A few babies are always killed when IVF is used. Always. The babies that are allowed to live are allowed only because their cord blood is useful!!!! Thankfully they are not killed once born - though there is nothing stopping the parents from killing the unbirn baby through abortion and harvesting the cordblood. *THereby gettin what they want and not having to have two live babies.

2. Yes, the babies who are not deemed useful are done a ways with. "screening of embryos is often carried out prior to IVF treatment"

Babies as products. Ick.

[Renegade]

Screening of embryos has been common practice for YEARS in eliminating the possibility of cystic fibrosis in a family..(Testing fertilized eggs at the eight cell stage and implanting those that are genetically free of the disease into the womb )Come on people .. This is not the dark ages . If it was the only way to save the life of YOUR child and it required another addition to the family , many of those in opposition would be singing another tune . In reference to God's will. God gave us the ability to do this procedure and eventually the field of Genetic Engineering will eliminate mankind's most horrifying diseases . Using umbillical blood does not harm the infant . Umbillical cords have been discarded for years or used by the hospital (with permission ) to be used as a storage container for skin grafts . I am reaching the middle 50's and all during my lifetime I've lived with " We will conquer cancer in your lifetime " Hope they hurry up because the clock keeps ticking .Genetic manipulation is quite possibly the key to the cure .

[Notwithstanding]

It is the very definitionof the dark ages when it is considered fine to abort a human life on purpose.

Your views demonstrate your selfishness and disregard for the rights of others. As you are fast approaching senior citizen status, you ought to pray that you are not involuntarily euthanised once you are deemed a useless old eater.

If you are lucky, people who are pro-life will ensure this sort of thing (killing the weak whether they be very young or old) is outlawed. If not, you just don't know what will happen. Think of how easy it will be just to nix you without you ever knowing. Of course you will be old and therefore of little use - so whats to stop them?

[Renegade]

Are you high on something other than God ?? I am pro-life. I detest abortion. This procedure does not destroy any human being. I never once mentioned the word abortion. These cell cultures are fertilized outside the body, checked for defective genes, and the cultures free of disease are implanted in the womb. Also Mr. Notwithstanding . Do you realize that you just dissed a whole generation of Baby Boomers with your statement "You will be old and therefore of little use "? I hear enough of your kind of dribble from all my Democrap friends . Wake up and smell the coffee. If you are YOUNG I hope you have a great job which will donate to MY retirement

[Notwithstanding]

"cell culture" ???

You are NOT prolife.

That "cell culture" is a living human being with unique DNA.

[Renegade]

Not a human being till blastocyst stage .When organs begin to differentiate .. You take the religious slant, I take the scientific slant . That's what I like about this country. Everyone can express their own views without disappearing in the night . Hope you had a Merry Christmas ( I didn't take the Christ out of Christmas - Xmas ) and a Happy New year ( anything can be happier than this year ).. Maybe we will meet in the next life .. Rich ( distant relative of Hugh Latimer--martyr-Protestant reformation )

[Boxsford]

Thank you for responding to my questions. One more? What is an IVF? Is this done with the baby inside the womb?

[Boxsford]

opps, sorry I found out in the article. I guess what I am struggling to understand is what these parents/doctors are after. If it's the blood in the cord, why not wait until the birth of the baby and then make use of the cord? Then, the baby lives. Do you have statistics (sp) that show that babies used for these purposes are aborted or killed after birth? I imagine that these figures are not announced anywhere. Again, I don't understand at what point the blood is taken and then what happens to the infant.

[Boxsford]

Ick? agreed. Disgusting and immoral! How our Lord must suffer.

[Longshanks]

Come on people .. This is not the dark ages .

Your right! In fact everyone should keep specially bred organ donors in kennels for when they may need a new kidney, liver, or heart. With baby-boom generation now growing old, it could catch on like hula-hoops!