Saviour Siblings
Saviour Siblings: Good or Bad?
The first question that will crop up in your minds will most likely be - what is a saviour sibling? Defined by the Oxford dictionary, a saviour sibling is a child conceived through selective in vitro fertilization as a potential source of donor organs or cells for an existing brother or sister with a life-threatening medical condition. http://www.qub.ac.uk/methics/MaloneC2008.pdf To what extent should parents go to ensure the wellbeing of your child is being met? Are saviour siblings a humane and proper use of reproductive technology? Can parents create a child specifically designed to cure the ailment of one of their offspring when there is no real benefit to the created child? What are the risks and down sides of “saviour siblings”?
Nothing is more wonderful than the birth of a baby. Babies are a symbol of life and love that a man and woman create together. It is heart-breaking when a man and woman just can’t seem to conceive a child, but with the medical advances today we have something called in vitro fertilization. The process of in vitro fertilization is not guaranteed to be 100% to always work but it definitely increases the chances of a woman giving birth to a baby. Now imagine that baby is sick or not healthy. Maybe that baby has a rare disease and there is little to no hope of him or her surviving. Is there anything you would not do to save your baby? What if it meant giving birth to another baby? Unfortunately this is a scenario that happens. Parents of terminally ill children make the decision to have another baby in order to save the child they already have. The babies are called “saviour siblings”. This sounds like a great solution for the problem, but what about the new baby as it grows up? What are the risks and the down sides to creating saviour siblings”?
The philosopher Kant states; “Never use people as a means but always treat them as an end”. If there is no benefit at all to the created child it
The first question that will crop up in your minds will most likely be - what is a saviour sibling? Defined by the Oxford dictionary, a saviour sibling is a child conceived through selective in vitro fertilization as a potential source of donor organs or cells for an existing brother or sister with a life-threatening medical condition. http://www.qub.ac.uk/methics/MaloneC2008.pdf To what extent should parents go to ensure the wellbeing of your child is being met? Are saviour siblings a humane and proper use of reproductive technology? Can parents create a child specifically designed to cure the ailment of one of their offspring when there is no real benefit to the created child? What are the risks and down sides of “saviour siblings”?
Nothing is more wonderful than the birth of a baby. Babies are a symbol of life and love that a man and woman create together. It is heart-breaking when a man and woman just can’t seem to conceive a child, but with the medical advances today we have something called in vitro fertilization. The process of in vitro fertilization is not guaranteed to be 100% to always work but it definitely increases the chances of a woman giving birth to a baby. Now imagine that baby is sick or not healthy. Maybe that baby has a rare disease and there is little to no hope of him or her surviving. Is there anything you would not do to save your baby? What if it meant giving birth to another baby? Unfortunately this is a scenario that happens. Parents of terminally ill children make the decision to have another baby in order to save the child they already have. The babies are called “saviour siblings”. This sounds like a great solution for the problem, but what about the new baby as it grows up? What are the risks and the down sides to creating saviour siblings”?
The philosopher Kant states; “Never use people as a means but always treat them as an end”. If there is no benefit at all to the created child it