Professional Documents
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Ms. Ehrlich
English 131
22 January 2015
Medical Ethics Considering the Transplantation
Savior sibling is a designated child (Reilly) produced in purpose of donating
the matching body parts or cells to its own siblings with fatal diseases that need
transplantation. Mainly in purpose of stem cell transplantation to cure diseases such
as cancer and anemia. But is it ethically acceptable to conceive a child in order to
prove bone marrow to save the life of a sibling (Reilly)? The baby is solely born to
be used as the donor. There is no option for them, the savior siblings, whether they
wanted or not wanted the life of being born as savior siblings, they are just born
with the choices their birthparents make. The savior siblings are chosen when they
are in form of zygote, checking through genetic compatibility, using
preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to make sure the compatibility between
the savior sibling and a child that is affected by the disease (Wilkinson). Mainly,
savior sibling is choosing one for the sake of another, and there are many ethical
question involved around this matter. Just because we now have ability to do
preimplantation genetic diagnosis, should we make savior siblings that can be
against ethics?
Furthermore, creating the savior siblings can both be positive or negative.
The pros of savior sibling will be that its a fast way to find matching donor, and
benefits you that you will get the donation. Also, the decision to select a savior
will be permissible about donation. However, there can be some psychological pain
at some point of their (Savior siblings) lifetime, but as long as their family cares and
loves the savior sibling and existing child the same way, it wouldnt be against
morality. Thus, save more people who need transplantation.
The third option is to give permission for reproducing savior sibling in certain
conditions only. For example, for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, where
upon birth, umbilical cord blood is taken and used for hematopoietic stem cell
transplantation (Wilkinson), where it only requires umbilical cord blood. But not for
the bone marrow sand organ transplantation, which requires savior siblings to suffer
a physical pain of extracting bone marrows and taking out organs. Therefore, the
savior sibling should be permission to be reproduced when the couples are already
planning for more children, and when the existing child needs hematopoietic cell
transplantation, where it only needs umbilical cord blood.
As you can see, by allowing the creation of savior siblings through PGD can
save so many lives without killing or deaths involved during the process of donating.
The children who were born as savior siblings wont have to think that their value of
lives are below zero if their parents treat and love the child (savior sibling) the same
way as the existing child (who gets donation). Most importantly, the article in The
Guardian mentioned that the savior sibling program could benefit hundreds of
couples and save the health services hundreds of millions of pounds a year
(McKie). As long as the couple will love the savior siblings and the existing child the
same, I want to recommend savior sibling reproduction to those whom needs
transplantation.
Works Cited Pages
Reilly, Philip. The strongest boy in the world: how genetic information is reshaping
our lives. Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2006.
Print.
The Bioethics Project 2012-The Medically Modified Human. The Bioethics Project
2012. N.p., n.d. Web. 09. Dec. 2014
Wilkkinson, Stephen. Choosing tomorrows children: the ethics of selective
reproduction. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 2010. Print.
Yari Donna. The Ethics of Organ Transplantation/ The ethics of Transplants: Why
Careless Thoughts Cost Lives. Ethics & Medicine 1. (2014): 55. eLibrary.
Web. 09 Dec. 2014.