Approval for designer baby plan

By ROGER DOBSON

A decision to let a British couple use in vitro fertilisation to create a "designer baby" whose cells could cure their son is under fire from ethical campaigners.

The move was a "dangerous precedent" that could be commercially exploited, said Dr Anthony Cole, acting chairman of Britain's Medical Ethics Alliance.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has ruled that Shahana and Raj Hashmi, from Leeds, can use "pre-implantation genetic diagnosis" to "create" a baby whose cells could then be used to cure their son, Zain, who suffers from a rare blood disease.

The Independent on Sunday has established that more than 50 women are pregnant with so-called designer babies, conceived to help cure an older sibling with a life-threatening disease.

It is understood two New Zealand families were among parents at a Melbourne unit who wanted to have genetically engineered babies to save their seriously ill children.

The American university that pioneered the approach said yesterday a number of women had been implanted with embryos selected as matches for older children.

"There are about 50 women at various stages of their pregnancies," said Sarah Youngerman of Minnesota University. "In all cases, there are older children who have one of a number of different types of conditions.

"We have had more than 500 inquiries from America and elsewhere."

Yesterday, the Bishop of Oxford said designer babies should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

"I think a very clear distinction can be made between preventing disease and enhancing ordinary qualities, and we wouldn't want to stray from the one to the other," the Right Reverend Richard Harris said. "It's very important in this case that the child is wanted for his or her own sake.

"But it's surely morally legitimate that the benefits which their birth brings should also be used."

Almost two years ago, Adam Nash made history by becoming the world's first designer baby. He was conceived and his embryo selected so he could help save the life of his 6-year-old sister, Molly, who desperately needed a bone marrow transplant.

"Clearly there are a number of ethical issues," said Dr John Wagner, clinical director at Minnesota University's stem cell centre, who led work on that first case. "One of the goals has been to make people aware that embryo research can be very positive and that our motivation is pure."

The British couple defended their decision to handpick their future child.

Raj and Shahana Hashmi said their fight for the right to screen IVF embryos to ensure their next baby was genetically identical to their son Zain, aged 3, was not an attempt to play God, but a desperate bid to save the life of their son, who has a rare fatal blood disorder.

His condition can be cured only by a bone marrow transplant from a perfect genetic match and a search has not found a suitable donor.

This embryo selection will enable cells from the baby's umbilical cord to be used for a transplant to save Zain's life. The couple justified their decision to go through with the selection by saying that they were not picking physical features such as sex or eye colour, but the fundamental genetic make-up.

Shahana Hashmi said: "This baby is going to be a special gift from nature, not a designer baby.

"We are not destroying anything. We are not hurting anybody."

Zain is receiving injections every day and a blood transfusion every three to four weeks to keep him alive.

The treatment causes side-effects such as night blindness, aching muscles and limbs, swollen legs, sickness, diarrhoea, rashes and tiredness, and his parents are desperate to relieve him from the pain.

But Shahana Hashmi, 37, said Zain had a right to life and she had a duty, as his mother, to help relieve his pain.

She said: "It has been a living nightmare for him. And when he gets a little bit older, he will know he is going to die.

"How is he going to feel if he knows something could have been done to save his life?"

She said any child that resulted from the procedure would be given the same love, understanding and care as was being given to Zain.

During their three-year battle to find a donor for Zain, the couple have had another child, Haris, who is free of the disease but whose tissue type does not match that of his brother.

The other embryos created as part of the selection will not be destroyed but will be frozen.

In Auckland, the Starship's clinical director of haemotology and ontology, Dr Lochie Teague, said New Zealand specialists would always take a keen interest in new medical developments and carefully assess the results achieved.

Whether such a programme would be appropriate here would require careful ethical consideration.

Fertility Associates medical director Dr Richard Fisher said such screening could not be developed in New Zealand without approval from the National Ethics Committee on human-assisted reproduction.

He was not aware of any such applications to the committee, and specialists here did not regard it as a high priority.

- INDEPENDENT

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