PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - K Devolder
TI  - Preimplantation HLA typing: having children to save our loved ones
AID  - 10.1136/jme.2004.010348
DP  - 2005 Oct 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 582--586
VI  - 31
IP  - 10
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/31/10/582.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/31/10/582.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2005 Oct 01; 31
AB  - Preimplantation tissue typing has been proposed as a method for creating a tissue matched child that can serve as a haematopoietic stem cell donor to save its sick sibling in need of a stem cell transplant. Despite recent promising results, many people have expressed their disapproval of this method. This paper addresses the main concerns of these critics: the risk of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) for the child to be born; the intention to have a donor child; the limits that should be placed on what may be done to the donor child, and whether the intended recipient can be someone other than a sibling. The author will show that these concerns do not constitute a sufficient ground to forbid people to use this technique to save not only a sibling, but also any other loved one’s life. Finally, the author briefly deals with two alternative scenarios: the creation of a human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matched child as an insurance policy, and the banking of HLA matched embryos.