Surprisingly enough I have managed to find a use of genetic modification and designer babies that I find completely repulsive and shameful. A two-year-old British infant by the name of Joshua Fletcher suffers from a severe blood disorder called Diamond Blackfan Anemia. This disease can result in Joshua’ death. Although a matching blood transfusion would save his life, none of his current family members are an appropriate match. His family is begging for an in vitro specialist to create them a child carrying the gene that will make for a proper match to Joshua. Twelve embryos will be created and then screened to find the appropriate target. Then stem cells will be harvested for treating Joshua prior to their implantation into his mother’s uterus.
I find it terrible that a child is being created solely for the purpose of saving his or her brother. It is one thing to modify a child to make them better but imagine this child growing up, knowing that he isn’t loved as much and the only reason he is on this earth is because his older brother needed a blood transfusion? If anything, I think they should just use the stem cells and not actually create a life. This makes the procedure purely medical and allows it serve only as a treatment. Since I don’t consider the stem cells a viable life form, there is no harm done to anyone else and Joshua reaps benefits.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3902407.stm
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What I find most disturbing about this procedure is that twelve embryos will be created during this process..and yet, only one will be used. This is certainly an ethical issue. It is not as if twelve zygotes are being created and then screened--the fertilized cells are instead reaching the important embryonic developmental stage which occurs 3 months into pregnancy. Undoubtedly, there is going to be much controversy similar to that of the abortion debate--is human life already present at the embryonic stage? Is it ethically correct to create 12 embryos knowing beforehand that 11 will be destroyed? These are all very important questions which must be considered.
Personally, I believe that stem cell research holds much promise and I realize this benefit does come with the cost of the destruction of "potential lives." However, I wonder if using 12 created embryos is really necessary. I find that to be quite a large number and bothersome.
As far as creating a life vs just using the stem cells, I think that it is more ethically correct to create an actual child from the embryo to be used as opposed to just taking the cells. Yes, it is true that it is difficult to tell how the child may feel knowing that he/she was created to save a brother's life. However, we cannot assume that the child would be upset by this--he/she may be proud to have saved a life. Also, the parents very likely could have been thinking of eventually having another child and this could have contributed to the decision to create a child.
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