Creating a life to save two others @ The Enterprise

A story of a Bridgewater, MA. family thinking about PGD to cure twin girls of thalassemia, treated at Children’s Hospital Boston. Some of my comments in the middle of the article in CAPS below.

Creating a life to save two others
By Jean Porrazzo, Enterprise staff writer
…
The technology is there to screen embryos for genetic diseases and to find a DNA match before it’s implanted in the womb. But the process opens a Pandora’s box of ethical concerns over having a child for the purpose of saving another, and over what should be done with embryos that the parents deem unsuitable.
ATF comments – WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
HOPEFULLY GOD WILL HELP US FIND MORE OPTIONS IN THE NEAR FUTURE TO BE ABLE TO CURE TERMINAL DISEASES WITHOUT SUCH AN AGRESSIVE TREATMENT AS TRANSPLANTATION AFTER BIRTH.
CRYOPRESERVATION OF THE EMBRYOS IS AN OPTION FOR NOW.
At the center of this moral and religious debate is the status that is given to the pre-implanted embryo — is it a collection of cells or a human being?
ATF comments – A COLLECTION OF STEM CELLS WITH INCREDIBLE POTENTIAL. THOSE STEM CELLS STILL NEED TO BE IMPLANTED TO THEIR MOTHERS UTERUS AND ONLY GOD KNOWS WHAT HAPPENS THERE… IN A MAGICAL MOMENT THOSE CELLS IMPLANT TO THE WOMB AND START TO DIFFERENTIATE. THE CELL STARTS TO DIVIDE AND FOLLOWS A SPECIFIC PATTERN OF GROWTH.
The twins are being treated by Dr. Melody Cunningham, director of the thalassemia program at Children’s Hospital in Boston…
Regarding the ethical issues, Cunningham said, “My feling is our job as physicians is to let families or adult patients know what all of the options are — get them all of the information and let them choose what they want to do.”
ATF comments – THE FAMILY SHOULD ALSO BE INFORMED THAT THE QUANTITY OF STEM CELLS GATHERED FROM THE UMBILICAL CORD MAY NOT BE ENOUGH FOR THE TRANSPLANT PROCEDURE OF ONE PATIENT. THERE ARE SOME TECHNIQUES TO MULTIPLY THOSE STEM CELLS BUT THEY ARE STILL ON TRIAL.
The Roman Catholic church does not approve of in-vitro fertilization and gives the embryo human status because the embryo has all that is needed to develop into a human, said Msgr. Francis J. Maniscalco, director of communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “It begins right at conception and is treated and respected as a human being,” Maniscalco said. “We believe science has backed us up.”
ATF comments – THE EMBRYO WITHOUT HIS MOTHER DOES NOT HAVE ALL THAT IS NEEDED TO DEVELOP INTO A HUMAN. YOU CANT GROW A HUMAN ON A PETRI DISH (AS FAR AS I KNOW).
ACCORDING TO MY PRIEST, CATHOLICISM ALSO ACCEPTS THE ‘LESSER EVIL OF TWO EVILS’. I BELIEVE THAT LETTING MY SON DIE WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING IS WORST THAN DOING IN VITRO FERTILIZATION.
The Catholic Church believes the act of intercourse in marriage is “unitive,” which means it is a bond of love between the spouses and at the same time procreative, he said.
ATF comments – THATS RIGHT. THE EMBRYO ALSO NEEDS A FATHER…
Conception through in-vitro fertilization separates the bond of love from the procreation. “We don’t find it to be moral,” Maniscalco said.
ATF comments – I LOVE PAULINA… AND I LOVE HER EVEN MORE NOW, SHES INCREDIBLY BRAVE.
Also at issue for the Catholic church is that in-vitro fertilization usually involves more than one embryo and there will be spare embryos which the church believes should not be destroyed, he said.
ATF comments – WE SHOULD PRAY TO HELP DOCTORS AND RESEARCHERS FIND MORE TOOLS TO CURE TERMINAL DISEASES. CRYOPRESERVATION IS AN OPTION FOR NOW.
“This is a major concern,” Maniscalco said. “They are human, yet they are treated as a byproduct. Morally, we just don’t approve of that.”
ATF comments – I THINK THAT NO ONE IS TREATING NO OTHER AS A BYPRODUCT.
The only experimentation on the embryo should be for the sake of the embryo to live a healthy life, not to help a second party, he said.
“The embryo deserves the respect given to the human being,” Maniscalco said.
ATF comments – I WOULD LIKE TO ASK MANISALCO HIS BLOOD TYPE.
I DONT UNDERSTAND.. I’M CATHOLIC AND I WAS TOUGHT TO HELP OTHERS, AND I DO KNOW MY BLOOD TYPE AND I’M REGISTERED AS A ORGAN DONOR..
SO ACCORDING TO THIS AN EMBRYO EQUALS A HUMAN… AND AN EMBRYO SHOULD ONLY BE INVESTIGATED OR TESTED ‘FOR THE SAKE OF HIS LIFE, A HEALTHY LIFE’.
THEN HUMANS (AS THE EMBRYOS) SHOULDNT BE INVESTIGATED OR TESTED FOR THE SAKE OF THE LIFE OF OTHERS?
THAN WHAT DO WE NEED BLOOD TYPES FOR?
The key from the Jewish perspective is the intent of the in-vitro fertilization, said Rabbi Loel Weiss of Temple Beth Am in Randolph.
“If the intent is to ultimately have healthy babies and implant them into the mother, then the Jewish tradition would absolutely permit that,” he said. “If its purpose is simply to use the embryo for the benefit of the living babies and then destroy the embryos, it would be more problematic.
“In any event, Jewish law does not view an embryo as a human being,” he said.
ATF comments – AM I JEWISH? I JUST FOUND OUT!
The intent of the couple is also what Dr. Halina Wiczyk looks at. She is reproduction endocrinologist at Bay State Medical Center in Springfield, where she is co-chairman of the hospital’s ethics committee.
The fact that the couple wants a child that is not affected by this very debilitating disease, and that they would implant healthy embryos even if they were not a match for a bone marrow transplant, “says a lot of who the couple is and what they’re looking for,” Wiczyk said.
“Looking at the intent is the most important thing,” she said.
“They would like to have a child that’s healthy and if that child could help the other two, it is a bonus,” she said.
ATF comments – I FEEL LUCKY TO BE ABLE TO KNOW THE GENETIC DETAILS ABOUT THE CONDITION THAT AFFECTS MY FAMILY (AT LEAST ONE OF THEM). AND I PRAY THAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE ALSO ABLE TO FIND THE DETAILS ABOUT THE CONDITION THAT AFFECTS THEIR FAMILIES.
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis is used in conjunction with in vitro fertilization, and involves testing an embryo for certain conditions prior to being placed in the womb of the woman.
Wiczyk recommends that the couple have extensive psychological screening and some kind of counseling.
ATF comments – LETS SEE..
“EXTENSIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL SCREENING”
EXTENSIVE = GREAT IN RANGE OR SCOPE
PSYCHOLOGICAL = THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOUR, MIND AND THOUGHT.
SCREENING = TESTING FOR DISEASE IN PEOPLE WITHOUT SYMPTOMS.
OK, OK..
I CONFESS, I DO HAVE A STRANGE DISEASE SINCE NOVEMBER 2000. THE DISEASE IS CALLED ‘BLOGGING’.
“This one doesn’t bother me as much,” she said about the DeBoes’ situation. “It’s when you start getting into (screening for) characteristics.” As more technology becomes available, the chances of screening for certain characteristics — what some call making “designer babies” — go up and physicians are concerned about that. “It’s going to happen,” Wiczyk said.
Wiczyk has heard that there is someone offering couples pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to select the sex of a child.
ATF comments – GO TO MICROSORT FOR THAT. AND ITS NOT THE SOFTWARE COMPANY.
Massachusetts Citizens for Life believes “embryos are human beings” and “science backs up the fact that a fertilized egg is a person,” said Marie Sturgis, executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Life.
ATF comments – I DISAGREE.
IF A FERTILIZED EGG IS A PERSON THEN I HAVE SEVERAL FROZEN PERSONS AT A FERTILITY CLINIC IN READING MA. AND THAT SOUNDS REALLY SCARY.
Advancements in science now make it possible to create artificial wombs with placental material and in time they will be able to raise donated embryos, she said. “This is Frankensteinian kind of thinking,” Sturgis said.
ATF comments – THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HEAR ABOUT ‘ARTIFICIAL WOMBS’ AND ‘PLACENTAL MATERIAL’. I FIND IT DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE…
Read the complete article via The Enterprise here.