Changes to rules that control the creation of 'saviour siblings' could benefit hundreds of couples and save the health services hundreds of millions of pounds a year, a leading IVF expert told The Observer yesterday.
Dr Simon Fishel - the only doctor to be given the go-ahead to create a saviour sibling in this country - said profound benefits would come from an expected decision by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to end its ban on the use of genetic screening techniques to create babies tissue-matched to sick brothers and sisters.
Fishel, director of the Care fertility unit at the Park Hospital, Nottingham, was involved in the case of Raj and Shahana Hashmi who were allowed to try to make a match for their four-year-old son Zain who had the rare blood disorder thalassemia. The HFEA has rejected all other applications to carry out such work.
But yesterday fertility expert Dr Mohammed Taranissi revealed the authority - which has come under intense pressure from doctors and parents to relax its ban - had told him it was likely to change its mind on the issue and would approve his latest application. The HFEA is meeting this week to discuss the issue, although a spokeswoman refused to say if it was about to change its policy.
Taranissi wants to screen the IVF embryos of Joe and Julie Fletcher, from Northern Ireland, to help their two-year-old son Joshua who suffers from the blood disorder Diamond-Blackfan anaemia. He needs a transplant of stem cells from a matching donor, which IVF could create.
A similar bid by Taranissi in 2002 to help Jayson and Michelle Whitaker, whose son Charlie also has the Diamond-Blackfan disorder, was rejected because the authority said there was no benefit to the future child. The Whitakers have since travelled to the US where the rules are more relaxed. Last year, Mrs Whitaker gave birth to a tissue-matched son, Jamie, and a bone marrow transplant has been carried out. Doctors are waiting to discover if it was successful.
'There are enormous benefits from this technology,' said Fishel. 'If bone marrow transplants work, and children can be cured of diseases like Diamond-Blackfan, doctors will not only alleviate a great deal of suffering; they will also save the health service a great deal of money that could be used to save other lives. It can cost millions of pounds to keep patients with these conditions alive.'
This point was backed by a friend of Fletcher family: 'Joshua is receiving a blood transfusion every three weeks and is receiving treatment to reduce the iron in his blood. That is what his life will be unless he has a bone marrow transplant.'
But it was not just families affected by rare blood disorder like Diamond-Blackfan that stood to gain from the rule change, added Fishel. Saviour siblings could also be created to help children with leukaemia. Although doctors have made enormous strides in the battle against childhood blood cancers, many patients still died.
'If we can tissue-match brothers and sisters, we will have source of stem cells which we can use to carry out bone marrow transplants. Hundreds of siblings could benefit every year. The public think this is about designer babies; in fact, the technique offers enormous potential.'
