Politics
Tuesday April 13, 2004
Fertility Doctor Seeks Permission to Create a Designer Baby for use as a Tissue Farm
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
LONDON, April 13, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-life activists, philosophers and Church leaders have warned for years that the in vitro fertilization industry will lead to the creation of people as property and for use in experiments. Now the creation of designer babies is being taken a step forward. A UK fertility doctor is hoping to use eugenic embryo-screening techniques to create a baby to be used as a tissue farm. Mohammed Taranissi, Director of the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre in London, wants to create a tissue-match donor for a child, Joshua Fletcher, who has a rare blood disorder, called Diamond Blackfan anaemia (DBA).
It is possible that an infusion of healthy cells from a matched-tissue donor will cure Joshua of the life-threatening disease. Currently the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has no rules against the creation of a person for use as a tissue source. Dr. Taranissi however, is launching a legal challenge to a rule that only allows the creation of a child if he or she is likely to be disease-free. Joshua's disorder is genetically inherited and a sibling is at an equal risk of developing the disease.
In April 2003 an appeal court, at the request of the HFEA, overturned a High Court decision banning the creation of children to be used as tissue donors for siblings. Dr. Taranissi's clinic pioneered the genetic testing of IVF embryos for abnormalities. In March 2002, Taranissi was quoted by the BBC saying, "It also means we can weed out problem embryos before a woman becomes pregnant." He hopes to use the genetic screening technique to "weed out" embryos who have the gene for Joshua's disease.
After the 2003 decision Josephine Quintavalle of Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE) said that the genetic screening and tissue typing procedure is "a form of enslavement for the child who's created."
BBC news coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3621479.stm
CORE website for commentary on IVF ethics:
http://www.corethics.org/
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- BREAKING: US Congress Passes Health Care Reform Bill 220 to 215
- Stupak Amendment to Health Care Bill Passes 240 - 194 Saturday Evening
- Major Health Care Development - Pro-Life Stupak Amendment Vote OK'd for Today
- NY Times: Dems Banking on Later Squeezing Pro-Life Language Out of Bill in Committee
- USCCB Spokesman: "Definitely Not True" that Bishops Support Bill As it Stands
- TIME Got it Wrong - Prof. George Opposed Grandiose Kennedy Funeral
- USCCB Condemnation Tears Facade off "Phony" Abortion Compromise for Health Bill
- Health Care Bill Includes Monthly Abortion Premium: House Minority Leader Boehner
- TIME Article Setting Burke Against O'Malley Called "Tactical strike" on Behalf of Catholic Left
- Dirty Fighting on Abortion Funding: Word-Games and Health-Care Theatrics Boggle the Mind
- Commentary on November 6 News
- Note to LifeSiteNews Subscribers with Rogers email addresses
- New York Gov. Declares Nov. 10 Extraordinary Legislative Session for Same-Sex "Marriage"
- Washington's Pro-Family Amendment Effort Defeated - R-71 Almost Certain to Pass
- Vote Pushed Back on Canadian Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Bill to Dec. 2
- Elderly U.K. Couple in Good Health Commit Suicide, Complain of Assisted Suicide Law
- Texas Late-Term Abortionist and Baptist Minister Admits: "Am I killing? Yes, I am"
- New Evidence Contradicts CCHD's Findings on Accused Pro-Abortion Partner
- Quebec Priest Denies Possibility of Sexual Reorientation Therapy on TV
- New Hampshire Same-Sex "Marriage" Law in Crosshairs after Maine's Law Crumbles
- Brooklyn Bishop Criticized for Recorded Message Praising Pro-Abortion Politician
- First Group of "Traditionalist" Anglicans in Britain Votes to Enter Catholic Church
Most Read this Week
- Planned Parenthood Director Resigns after Watching Ultrasound of Abortion Procedure
- Nun Defiant Following Rebuke, but Stops Abortion Escorting
- Breaking: Dominican Community Apologizes for Nun Caught Acting as Abortion Escort
- Over 200 Christendom College Students Protest Abortion at Planned Parenthood Clinic
- TIME Article Setting Burke Against O'Malley Called "Tactical strike" on Behalf of Catholics Left
- Scottish Gay Rights Activists Found Guilty of Pedophilia Sentenced to Life Imprisonment
- Newly Identified Corporate Supporters of Planned Parenthood Named
- Major Health Care Bill Development - Stupak Hyde Amendment Vote OK'd
- Health Care Bill Includes Monthly Abortion Premium: House Minority Leader Boehner
- US Congress Passes Health Care Reform Bill 218 to 215
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.