No to 'designer babies'
A Christian Outlook has informed its readers consistently of various decisions and developments in the area of bio-ethics. We do this as we believe that this area of science is a very important frontier where the battle in favour of a civilisation...
A Christian Outlook has informed its readers consistently of various decisions and developments in the area of bio-ethics. We do this as we believe that this area of science is a very important frontier where the battle in favour of a civilisation based on love and respect for life is being fought.
An important decision in the area was recently taken by Britain's highest court. On April 28 the House of Lords ruled to permit a couple to create a "designer baby" to cure their seriously ill son.
This decision brought several strong reactions by the pro-life lobby. Helen Watt, director of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics, the bioethics institute of the British and Irish bishops, said the case illustrated the fact that embryos created by in vitro fertilisation were "not only made like products; they are treated like products".
"Normally, 'healthy' embryos are only discarded if they are surplus to the parents' requirements... the law now allows the discarding of embryos merely for not being good tissue donors for a born sibling," she said in a statement on April 29.
The case had been brought by Josephine Quintavalle of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, a public interest group. She contested a 2003 Court of Appeal ruling that allowed Raj and Shahana Hashmi of Leeds, England, to create a donor sibling for their six-year-old son, Zain, who suffers from a potentially fatal blood disorder.
The Hashmis wanted to take stem cells from the donor baby's umbilical cord and transplant them into Zain. To do this, "pre-implantation genetic diagnosis" is used to ensure the embryos are healthy, and "tissue typing" then tests whether the siblings are compatible. Embryos that do not have the right match are discarded.
Quintavalle said that the ruling left the door open for the creation of babies for any purpose.
"This is not simply about babies being created in the laboratory as tissue matches, but the creation of babies of the right sex, hair colour, intelligence and so on," she said in a statement.
"This judgment effectively endorses the terrifying designer baby scenario which our country rightly abhors," she said.