New controversy over "designer baby"
Hannah Cowdy / Reuters 1oct01

LONDON - A new row over "designer babies" erupted on Monday after medics said a British boy with a rare genetic blood disorder would die unless his parents won permission to create a test-tube sibling who might save him.

Doctors say two-year-old Zain Hashmi needs a brother or sister with a close genetic match for a life-saving transplant or transfusion.

They have asked the authorities to relax rules over laboratory-created embryos in what would be a landmark British case.

"Zain will die without a compatible match, and I think any parent would understand the dilemma this family is in," said fertility expert Dr Simon Fishel, who is treating Hashmi.

Hashmi has thalassaemia, which affects haemoglobin, the substance in the blood that carries oxygen to tissues.

He cannot live without a closely matched blood transfusion or bone marrow transplant.

None of his siblings is a match and his best chance at life is if medics can create a "life-saver" baby.

The Park Hospital's Centre for Assisted Reproduction in Nottinghamshire, central England, has agreed to help his parents in creating a possible donor, but first needs approval from the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

The HFEA, which regulates fertility treatments, says it has never dealt with an application of this kind before.

"We are aware of the significance of this case for the family concerned, but we are also aware that this would be a new departure for the applications of these techniques in this country," it added.

Past controversy over reproduction in Britain has centred on gender rather than medical condition, with one family currently battling to create a girl after a daughter died in a bonfire accident.

Experts are divided over the Hashmi case, which comes after another in the United States where doctors treating a girl with a genetic disorder created a baby brother who could become a transplant donor for her.

The doctors screened a number of test tube embryos before selecting one with the right match and planting it in her mother.

The Adam Nash case caused widespread uproar, with critics warning of a slippery slope towards a "Brave New World" of designer babies for those who can afford them.

Fishel said even with HFEA approval, there was still only around a 30 percent chance of success.

Fertility expert Lord Robert Winston said he was worried about the case.

"There will be serious concerns about the ability to identify the gene defect...I would have very grave reservations about using a child as a commodity," he told Reuters.