UK watchdog may ease 'designer baby' rules

The British fertility watchdog was meeting today to consider relaxing its rules on embryo screening to allow the birth of “designer babies” to cure sick siblings.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has refused so far to discuss suggestions that it is on the verge of changing its policy to allow screening for purposes other than weeding out genetic disorders.

But 18 members of the authority were meeting this afternoon at its headquarters in central London to consider the results of its policy review, which was announced in May.

The controversial debate centres on parents who want to use IVF and genetic screening to create babies whose tissue could then save the life of a sick brother or sister.

Any change would spark a furious backlash from pro-life groups who warn it would lead to a “rush down a very worrying slippery slope”.

Past cases have allowed parents to screen if it is also of benefit to the embryo, but not where the only purpose is to create genetic conditions to help another with no benefit to the child that is to be born.

One leading specialist has said there is no justification for inconsistencies over who can screen embryos for specific purposes and who cannot.

Fertility expert Dr Mohammed Taranissi, of the London-based Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre, said that the logic is flawed.

“If the principle is acceptable, then it should be acceptable in all cases,” he said.

“If it is OK for this child or that child, how can you deny it to other people?”

Dr Taranissi has applied for permission to screen the IVF embryos of Joe and Julie Fletcher, from Northern Ireland, to help their son Joshua.

The two-year-old suffers from the blood disorder Diamond-Blackfan anaemia and needs a transplant of stem cells from a matching donor.

Ethical campaigners fear a relaxing of regulations could lead to parents choosing the sex, hair colour and other attributes of their child and rejecting unsuitable embryos.

Josephine Quintavalle, founder of the Committee on Reproductive Ethics (Core), warned that not only were moral principles at stake but the HFEA was on a “suicide mission”.

She said: “Today the HFEA are deliberating about tissue-matched siblings, tomorrow it will be the intelligence, athletic or musical gene that some patient is searching for.

“The rush down a very worrying slippery slope has begun.”

Dr Michael Wilks, chairman of the British Medical Association’s medical ethics committee, has said he would support a relaxation.

Last week the Human Genetics Commission announced a nationwide consultation to seek the public’s views. The Science and Technology Select Committee is also holding a consultation programme.