Von Simon Trepte
#Donor Child
We have to evaluate if personal freedom or social responsibility holds more importance.
Ask yourself the question: “What is the most sustainable solution that helps everyone?” That results in the answer that we have to stop this process. If we pass the first threshold of selecting “fitting” embryos, there isn’t much missing to completely designing your own child. Should we really open Pandora’s box of gene modification? It will harm the other members of society drastically. For example, people that are not genetically modified will encounter various obstacles when looking for a job in the future and therefore face discrimination in many situations. In case you are an employer looking for employees: Do you want a standard human if you could get a superhuman that is better in every little aspect? I guess not. And that is what everyone is likely to answer. So, unmodified humans won´t have a lucky future if we don´t act KNOW!
But I want to show both sides of the coin. Humans are suffering from fatal diseases. Their lives result in death if we don´t allow them to cure their deseases. We have the power to decide about life and death, so we shouldn´t make the wrong choice.
To make matters worse, even children are dying every single day. And every mother wants to rescue her child. They go through good and bad with them and would die for them. In case you have children, you know the feeling of affiliation.
Decide for yourself whether you are on the side of human society as we know it or whether you want to cure diseases and create a world of the genetically superior.
A lamb fighting slaughter
Have you ever thought about suing your parents? You would think such a thought would never actually become reality, no way how you would twist it. However, a girl called Anna Fitzgerald did. She was born with the only purpose to sacrifice herself to save her sister: And now she’s taking her chances.
Using Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis to create Savior Siblings
Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is one of the best procedures to diagnose any sort of genetic defects or chromosomal issues within embryos. Besides sorting the genetic issues, the process further allows you to diagnose and determine the embryo’s quality during its developmental stages. The primary goal is to distinguish those embryos that are reproductively competent and are capable of producing a healthy child from those that cannot. Due to the advancement of medical technology, saviour siblings, as a further use of PGD, transformed from a mere idea to a feasible alternative in 2000 when the first baby, Adam Nash, was engineered or designed to save his older sister from a rare form of anaemia. When Adam was born a stem cell transplantation was done immediately and infused into his sisters Molly’s circulatory system. Molly showed improvement in 4 weeks and in three years her immune system was normal.
Do saviour children have rights?
The 13-year-old Anna Fitzgerald coined headlines of all kind of newspapers worldwide over the last weeks by suing her parents to fight for her rights. She was genetically created to save her from cancer suffering sister Kate Fitzgerald. Anna endured the pain her whole life that comes with the for Kate life-saving donations. She doesn’t want to aid with this anymore, since the next donation could be life-changing and has fatal potential. That’s why Anna sues her parents in cooperation with the celebrity lawyer Campbell Alexander. In court, they’re fighting for Anna’s right to decide over her own body. In legal terms, this is called medical emancipation.
The treatment options of APL
Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a unique subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). It is caused by a gene rearrangement concerning the 15 and 17 chromosomes, leading to the formation of an abnormal fusion gene called PML/RARα. This gene produces immature white blood cells, and therefore a bone marrow transplant is needed to provide healthy leukocytes.
Interview with the parents of Kate about the lawsuit
Anna Fitzgerald is a savior sibling specifically born to aid her sister Kate who suffers from leukaemia. After the young Anna decided to sue her parent over the right to her own body, we decided to speak with the parents of Anna and hear out their opinion.
Interview with Kate Fitzgerald
Yesterday morning I had the chance to ask a few questions to Kate Fitzgerald, who suffers from Leukemia. As the sister of Anna, a savior sibling, she has got some interesting point of views regarding different topics, for instance the relationship with her parents. The following interview will prove that Kate has a breathtaking mindset and a heart of gold.