Is it ethical for parents to create a savior sibling?

<p>Savior siblings are children who are born to provide HLA compatible
body parts, typically umbilical cord blood to be used for bone marrow
transplantation, in order to save the life of their older sibling. They
are created using IVF so that the embryos can be screened in order to
find and implant one that is a match to the existing child. The first
savior sibling, Adam Nash, was born in the US was born in 2000. Lisa and
Jack Nash decided to create a savior sibling after their doctor
suggested it might be the best option for a cure for their daughter
Molly, who was born with a severe type of Fanconi anemia. Immediately
after Adam was born, Molly received a bone marrow transplant using the
umbilical cord blood from her brother. The notion of savior siblings
gained more attention with Jodi Picoult’s book My Sister’s Keeper and
the movie based on the book. In contrast to Adam Nash, the savior
sibling in the book and movie is expected to continue giving bodily to
her sister throughout her childhood, including organ transplantation,
rather than one time umbilical cord donation.</p>
<p>Is it ethical for
parents to create a savior sibling? Some argue that the parents’
intention plays a role in considering whether it is ethical to create a
savior sibling. If the parents were not planning on having any more
children and they are the having the savior sibling only for the sake of
the older child, then there is the concern of using the ...

Source: blog.bioethics.net - October 1, 2015 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Hayley Dittus-Doria Tags: Health Care Reproductive Medicine assisted reproduction genetic testing syndicated Source Type: blogs