Designer Babies: A moral issue

[The Simple Plan]

LONDON (Reuters) - The mother of a terminally ill boy has pleaded with three judges to overturn a ruling preventing the creation of so-called "designer babies", saying the step would save her son`s life.

"When making a decision, please consider that our son will die a terrible and painful death if we are not given permission to save him," Shahana Hashmi, 38, told the hearing at London`s Court of Appeal on Tuesday, after Master of the Rolls Lord Phillips permitted her to make a short address.

Shahana and Raj Hashmi, from Leeds in northern England, started in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment last year to try to select an embryo with identical stem cells to their four-year-old son Zain, who has thalassaemia -- a rare and potentially fatal blood disorder.

But a High Court judge blocked their treatment in December, ruling the Human Embryology and Fertility Authority (HFEA), which regulates the industry, had no right to license tissue-typing to match sick siblings.

Holding her husband`s hand, Shahana said she wanted to highlight the human aspects of the landmark case.

"We have heard a lot of ethical, moral and legal wrangles here. Zain is a little boy who suffers desperately day in day out and we have to watch him suffer," she said.

She then showed the judges a photograph of her son in a hospital bed undergoing treatment for his condition.

David Pannick QC, on behalf of the HFEA, told the court that allowing embryonic cells to be screened for tissue type as well as disease would not create a "free-for-all" whereby parents could choose the hair and eye colour of their baby.

"The authority is not suggesting that there should be a free-for-all. Far from it," he said.

Pannick told the court pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), where embyros are screened for genetic diseases, was allowed and that simultaneous tissue-typing was a step further.

If the ruling was overturned, Zain could be given a stem cell transplant from the umbilical cord of the couple`s genetically selected new baby, which could treat his condition.

James Dingemans QC, on behalf of Josephine Quintaville from Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE), told the court she felt sympathy for the Hashmi family, but was nevertheless concerned about the ethics of the screening process.

CORE, which won the original case, says healthy embryos would be destroyed just because they did not match the required tissue type and would pave the way for "designer babies".

On Monday the Hashmis said time was running out for them because Shahana was approaching reproductive maturity, and ideally Zain needed a bone marrow transplant before he was aged five-and-a-half.

The hearing continues

What are your thoughts?

Dave

 

[Chevy]

I am all for it. It could save lives.