The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill 2007-8
Briefings from the Christian Medical Fellowship
Background
IVF and PGD together now allow selection of an embryo that will have the potential of growing into an ideal tissue donor for an existing person - a so-called 'saviour sibling'. The Bill sanctions 'tissue typing' for the creation of saviour siblings but radically extends the range of possibilities.
Radical proposals: more tissues from the saviour
The HFEA permits selecting tissue-matched embryos for cord blood transplantation between siblings. The Bill would legalise 'tissue typing' not just to provide umbilical cord blood for an existing child with a genetic disease, but to provide any tissue for transplant. One clause would legalise the selection of embryos to treat an existing child who 'suffers from a serious medical condition which could be treated by umbilical cord blood stem cells, bone marrow or other tissue of any resulting child' (emphasis added).
Regarding these tissues, in answering a Parliamentary Question, the Government stated: 'In the case of adults that lack capacity and children who are not competent to consent, this extends to bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells'. Presumably therefore children deemed competent to consent, and those who reach adulthood, could donate other tissues, including organs. Some authorities are already speculating about creating saviour siblings (potential kidney donors) for the genetic condition polycystic kidney disease.
Radical proposals: more diseases to be treated
The Bill also extends the range of diseases that could be treated, from the current 'life threatening' to the merely 'serious.' Who is to define 'serious'? We have seen slippery slopes in practice in other contexts.
CMF policy
CMF upholds the traditional ethical understanding that we should not use people as a means to an end, but see them as ends in themselves. We should accept the children we are given as mysterious gifts from God, rather than selecting or creating children with specific characteristics to satisfy our own wishes, however noble or caring the motivation.
We uphold the biblical condemnation of 'Let us do evil that good may result' (Romans 3: 8).
Amendments lost in the Lords –
A ban on creating saviour siblings was lost by 62 to 180, and restricting them to life-threatening disease was lost by 121-162.
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