- Fertility regulators in the UK have ruled that families
can pre-select embryos which could potentially save ill siblings.
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- To date, applications to pick genetically matched embryos
for implantation for this purpose in the UK have been mired in legal opposition.
The new ruling clears the way for families to proceed unhindered.
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- "In terms of officially sanctioning this, we're
the first in the world," said a spokeswoman for the Human Fertilisation
and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates all in-vitro fertilisation
procedures and experiments on embryos in the UK.
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- Through pre-screening of embryos, parents could proceed
with a full pregnancy only when an embryo has tissues matched with those
of the sick sibling.
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- One family in Britain, the Hashmis, had earlier received
explicit permission from the HFEA to try and create a baby whose cord blood
could be used to treat a sibling with the blood disorder, beta thallassaemia.
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- Another family, the Fletchers from Northern Ireland,
are now hoping the procedure can be used to create a donor for their son,
Joshua, who has a condition called Diamond Blackfan anaemia.
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- Ethical and humane
-
- But while the ruling has given hope to such families,
it has been attacked by pro-life and other opposition groups who say it
turns babies into commodities.
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- "It's wrong to create a child simply as a means
to an end, however good that end might be," says David King of the
London-based lobby group, Human Genetics Alert.
-
- But the authority is adamant that its ruling is practical,
ethical and humane. "This treatment can benefit the whole family,"
said Suzi Leather, chair of the HFEA in a statement on Wednesday.
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- Leather says that although the ethical issues are important,
the primary focus of the authority has been whether the screening procedure
itself - which involves removal of cells - harms embryos and babies.
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- The HFEA says that in the past three years, some 300
healthy babies have been born in Europe and elsewhere that have undergone
pre-implantation diagnosis - usually to screen out babies otherwise fated
to suffer an inherited disease.
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- Case-by-case
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- "Our review of the evidence available does not indicate
that the embryo biopsy procedure disadvantages resulting babies compared
with other IVF babies," says Leather. "It also shows that the
risks associated with sibling to sibling stem cell donation are low,"
she says.
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- The authority will deal with applications on a case-by-case
basis and stresses such "saviour sibling" treatments should be
the last resort.
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- Opponents attacked the decision, and questioned the HFEA's
authority. "This kind of policy-making is the job of parliament, not
of the HFEA," says King.
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- But John Harris, professor of bioethics at the University
of Manchester, disagrees. "There could be no better reason for having
a child than to save the life of another child....so this is genuinely
a 'pro-life' decision by the parents and the HFEA and they are to be congratulated."
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- Whether the ruling sets an international trend remains
to be seen. In the US, IVF and "saviour sibling" procedures are
completely unregulated. But a spokeswoman for the HFEA said it had been
approached for advice on the matter by several other governments, including
Canada, Taiwan and Japan.
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