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Savior sibling
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Savior sibling
A savior baby, savior sibling, or donor baby is a child who is conceived in order to provide a stem cell, bone marrow, or other transplant to a sibling that is affected with a fatal disease, such as cancer or Fanconi anemia, that can best be treated by hematopoietic stem cell, or other transplant.
The savior sibling is conceived through in vitro fertilization. Fertilized zygotes are tested for genetic compatibility (human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing), using preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), and only zygotes that are compatible with the existing child are implanted. Zygotes are also tested to make sure they are free of the original genetic disease. The procedure is controversial.
A savior sibling may be the solution for any disease treated by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. It is effective against genetically detectable (mostly monogenic) diseases, e.g. Fanconi anemia, Diamond–Blackfan anemia and β-thalassemia, in the ailing sibling, since the savior sibling can be selected to not have inherited the disease. The procedure may also be used in children with leukemia, and in such cases HLA match is the only requirement, and not exclusion of any other obvious genetic disorder.
Multiple embryos are created and preimplantation genetic diagnosis is used to detect and select ones that are free of a genetic disorder and that are also a HLA match for an existing sibling who requires a transplant. Upon birth, umbilical cord blood is taken and used for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
The conception of a child in order to save another raises ethical issues, the sick eldest child being doomed, unless a compatible brother or sister can treat them.
This ethical debate is reflected in the terminology used, with opponents insisting on the term "baby‐medicine" to underline the "instrumentalization of the human body". For these opponents, PGD is considered "utilitarianism taken to the extreme", "human procreation is totally diverted for the benefit of the project of creating a human being whose main "mission" is to be a medicine. Project carrying a radical alienation of one's freedom since its conception is only desired because of its therapeutic potential. They have no other choice than to take on the status of reservoir of cells for their sick elder, subject to a project predetermined by others, in this case society, the medical profession and their own parents."[citation needed]
The Jérome Lejeune Foundation, like other religious associations, which is anti-abortion, against research on embryos, but not against assisted procreation, speaks of a "double sorting baby", because this child is the survivor of a double sorting: the 1st in relation to the disease, the 2nd, in relation to compatibility, thus wanting to criticize the selection of a large number of "healthy" embryos and therefore the "interruption of the life" of future babies, and therefore a eugenic drift. Finally, these same opponents refuse the term "double hope baby", because it means the same practice as the expression "baby-medicine" – therefore the same criticisms apply.[citation needed]
Specialists prefer to use "child of double hope": first hope of the birth of a healthy child, second hope of curing the eldest child, "the fact of being wanted for another does not exclude being wanted at the same time." "conceiving a child in the hope that it can cure someone is not in itself immoral, provided that it is not conceived exclusively for this purpose. We can reasonably hope that parents who love their child to the point of trying everything to save him will know how to love for himself the one by whom their first child was saved."[citation needed]
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Savior sibling AI simulator
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Savior sibling
A savior baby, savior sibling, or donor baby is a child who is conceived in order to provide a stem cell, bone marrow, or other transplant to a sibling that is affected with a fatal disease, such as cancer or Fanconi anemia, that can best be treated by hematopoietic stem cell, or other transplant.
The savior sibling is conceived through in vitro fertilization. Fertilized zygotes are tested for genetic compatibility (human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing), using preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), and only zygotes that are compatible with the existing child are implanted. Zygotes are also tested to make sure they are free of the original genetic disease. The procedure is controversial.
A savior sibling may be the solution for any disease treated by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. It is effective against genetically detectable (mostly monogenic) diseases, e.g. Fanconi anemia, Diamond–Blackfan anemia and β-thalassemia, in the ailing sibling, since the savior sibling can be selected to not have inherited the disease. The procedure may also be used in children with leukemia, and in such cases HLA match is the only requirement, and not exclusion of any other obvious genetic disorder.
Multiple embryos are created and preimplantation genetic diagnosis is used to detect and select ones that are free of a genetic disorder and that are also a HLA match for an existing sibling who requires a transplant. Upon birth, umbilical cord blood is taken and used for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
The conception of a child in order to save another raises ethical issues, the sick eldest child being doomed, unless a compatible brother or sister can treat them.
This ethical debate is reflected in the terminology used, with opponents insisting on the term "baby‐medicine" to underline the "instrumentalization of the human body". For these opponents, PGD is considered "utilitarianism taken to the extreme", "human procreation is totally diverted for the benefit of the project of creating a human being whose main "mission" is to be a medicine. Project carrying a radical alienation of one's freedom since its conception is only desired because of its therapeutic potential. They have no other choice than to take on the status of reservoir of cells for their sick elder, subject to a project predetermined by others, in this case society, the medical profession and their own parents."[citation needed]
The Jérome Lejeune Foundation, like other religious associations, which is anti-abortion, against research on embryos, but not against assisted procreation, speaks of a "double sorting baby", because this child is the survivor of a double sorting: the 1st in relation to the disease, the 2nd, in relation to compatibility, thus wanting to criticize the selection of a large number of "healthy" embryos and therefore the "interruption of the life" of future babies, and therefore a eugenic drift. Finally, these same opponents refuse the term "double hope baby", because it means the same practice as the expression "baby-medicine" – therefore the same criticisms apply.[citation needed]
Specialists prefer to use "child of double hope": first hope of the birth of a healthy child, second hope of curing the eldest child, "the fact of being wanted for another does not exclude being wanted at the same time." "conceiving a child in the hope that it can cure someone is not in itself immoral, provided that it is not conceived exclusively for this purpose. We can reasonably hope that parents who love their child to the point of trying everything to save him will know how to love for himself the one by whom their first child was saved."[citation needed]