Politics
Monday February 25, 2002
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
UK FERTILITY AUTHORITY OKAYS DESIGNER BABY SELECTION
LONDON, February 25, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) decided Friday to allow in vitro fertilization to be used to have children born with close genetic matches to older siblings in order to be able to provide bone marrow transplants. HFEA approved the request of Raj and Shahana Hashmi who were looking to use IVF to select a child with a bone marrow match for their three-year-old Zain who suffers from the rare and potentially fatal blood disorder thalassaemia.
As with all IVF treatment, the procedure creates many embryos (live children) and implants only a few, the rest of which are either frozen and stored, discarded and thus destroyed/killed, donated to research resulting in their death or given to other couples for adoption. A child with the specific genetic match is selected from among the created embryos using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.
Although HFEA said this was a very rare case and that the decision would not be precedent setting, the BBC is reporting today that there are another six families looking to have 'designer babies' for similar reasons. While the Hashami's say that the extra embryos created will be frozen rather than destroyed, experts in the field have noted that only about half of all embryos survive the freezing and thawing process.
See the BBC coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1836000/18365...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1839000/18390...
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Over 100 MPs Oppose Morgentaler Order of Canada - List Released Today
- National Right to Life calls GOP Platform "Strongest Ever" on Life Issues
- Exclusive: Prominent Rabbi Says Lieberman was Excommunicated and it is Still in Effect
- Comments on August 28 LifeSiteNews
- McCain Himself Accuses Obama of Courting Infanticide
- Two More Bishops Make 8 Who Have Come Out against Pelosi's 'Catholic' Abortion Theology
- VP Hopeful Biden about Pro-Abortion Stance: "My Views are Totally Consistent with Catholic Social Doctrine..."
- Protests and Official Mourning Declared following Mexican Pro-Abortion Ruling
- Pure Utilitarianism: Doctors Justifying Killing Infant Patients for Organ Donation
- Philippines Court Rejects Claims of New York Based Pro-Abortion Group
- MPs Affirm Continued Support for C-484 - Unborn Victims of Crime Bill
- Brazilian Supreme Court Hears Testimony on Eugenic Abortions
- Cells Transformed into Insulin Producers in Research that Makes Embryonic Research "Irrelevant"
- Priests for Life Nine Week Novena Prayer for Election Begins September 1st
Most Read this Week
- Biden's Bishop Will not Permit Him, Even if Elected VP, to Speak at Catholic Schools
- "Catholic" Speaker Pelosi Denies that Catholicism Condemns Abortion
- Cardinals, Bishops and Congressmen Slam Pelosi on Abortion
- Talk a Woman out of Abortion in the UK? Two Years Jail
- Mainstream Media Admits Anti-Family Bias: NBC to 'Gay' Activists: 'Your Victories Are Our Victories'
- Pelosi Spokeswoman About-face: Catholic Church "Clear" on Life Teaching After All - But Catholics Need Not Listen
- American Apparel Defends "Pornographic" Billboards
- New York Cardinal - Pelosi Not Worthy of "Providing Leadership in a Civilized Democracy"
- Conservative Party of Canada Kills Unborn Victims of Crime Act with Gutless Alternative
- Pro-Life Billboard Vandalized with "Joker" Face Paint and Slogan: "Why So Serious?"
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.