Article:
'Savior sibling' born to Fletcher family
(BioNews, UK)
I've
written before about the Whitakers, a family with a seriously ill son
who could be cured by a bone marrow transfusion. They hoped to use PGD
to have a 'savior sibling' -- using an embryo selected because it was a
tissue match for their older son. However, the UK's HFEA (the aptly
called "watchdog" organization that decides who can do what with
fertility treatments in the UK) denied the Whitakers the use of PGD on
the grounds that only an existing child would benefit, not the baby who
would be born as the result of PGD.
The
HFEA's convoluted logic was much criticized (or criticised, it being
England), as you might expect with a storyline like this:
Mr. & Mrs. Whitaker: Dear HFEA, we'd like to use PGD.
HFEA: Well, we don't like it. You'd better have a good reason.
Whitakers: To save the life of a child.
HFEA: Not good enough. Next!
Well,
all that's old news. The UK has changed their stance to allow PGD for
savior siblings! And, the first baby to result from this medical
blessing has been born to the Fletchers in Belfast. Their young son
suffers from a very rare disease Diamond Blackfan Anemia, or DBA (just
like Charlie Whitaker). Using PGD, the Fletchers conceived a daughter
to be a tissue match for a bone marrow transplant to hopefully cure
him. (In case you're worried about this procedure hurting the baby,
the cord blood can be used.)
About Maureen
Click to play the Fountains of Wayne song about Maureen!
"Maureen, you're givin' me too much information!"
My Kiddies
My DH
(And never had a fight!)
About Me
In 1999, my two sons were 4 and 2 years old, and we were ready to have another baby. I hoped to have a daughter, and I turned to the Internet to search for ways of increasing the odds of conceiving a girl. I discovered the iVillage Gender Determination Board. On the board, I found information about at-home and high-tech sex selection methods, but more importantly, I discovered I wasn't alone. I was one among a legion of mothers who longed desperately for a daughter, keeping it a secret so others wouldn't think, wrongly, that we loved our sons less, and feeling guilty becuse we're not supposed to care if a baby's a boy or a girl, "as long as it's healthy". There were, of course, also mothers hoping just as much to add a son to their all-girl family.
After a lot of research and soul-searching, my husband I decided to try MicroSort. In the fall of 2000, I became pregnant on our first MicroSort attempt, by IUI. At 20 weeks of pregnancy, we discovered we were having twins, a boy and a girl! We were thrilled to have a daughter at last, and a new son to cherish too.
During my journey to conceive a daughter, I was so grateful for the support and information volunteered by others on the boards; mothers who didn't even know me, but were willing to help me, hope for me, and cry along with me, when there was no one I could turn to "in real life". I know that without being able to talk personally with women who had tried MicroSort, I would have never gone through with this daunting, complex procedure; and that we would have never had a daughter as part of our family.
Now that my journey's finished, this Web site is just my way of giving some of that help back, to you.