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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Lab Creates Babies As Stem-Cell Donors<BR>May 4,
11:00 PM (ET)<BR>By LINDSEY TANNER </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The made-to-order infants, from different families,
were </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>screened and</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>selected when they were still embryos to make sure
they would be</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>compatible donors. Their siblings suffered from
leukemia or a rare and</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>potentially lethal anemia. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is the first time embryo tissue-typing has
been done for common</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>disorders like leukemia that are not inherited, and
the results suggest</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>that many more children than previously thought
could benefit from </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>the technology, said Dr. Anver Kuliev, a Chicago
doctor who</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>participated in the research. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"This technology has wide implications in medical
practice," Kuliev</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>said Tuesday at a news conference. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The Chicago doctors said the healthy embryos that
were not matches</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>were frozen for potential future use. But some
ethicists said such</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>perfectly healthy embryos could end up being
discarded. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"This was a search-and-destroy mission," said
Richard Doerflinger of</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The chosen
embryos "were</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>allowed to be born so they could donate tissue to
benefit someone else." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Valparaiso University professor Gilbert Meilaender,
a member of the </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>President's Council on Bioethics, called the
practice "morally</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>troubling." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The council recently called for increased scrutiny
of the largely</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>unregulated U.S. infertility industry.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The cases involved prenatal tests called
pre-implantation HLA testing,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>pioneered at Chicago's Reproductive Genetics
Institute. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The tests are an offshoot of pre-implantation
genetic diagnosis, which</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>has been done for more than 1,000 couples worldwide
to weed out</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>test-tube embryos with genetic diseases such as
Down syndrome,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>or, more recently, for sex selection. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The institute's doctors made headlines four years
ago after performing</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>embryo tissue typing plus genetic disease screening
for a Colorado</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>couple who wanted to create another baby to save
their daughter, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>who had a rare inherited disease called Fanconi
anemia. The resulting</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>baby boy, Adam Nash, donated bone marrow in an
operation doctors</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>said was a success. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Since then, embryo tissue typing with genetic
disease testing has</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>been performed more than three dozen times
worldwide, with most</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>of the cases done at the Chicago institute, Kuliev
said. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Kuliev said the latest cases are the first
instances in which embryos</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>were tissue-typed but not screened genetically for
diseases. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The cases, reported in Wednesday's Journal of the
American Medical</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Association, involved nine couples who submitted
embryos that</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>underwent tissue-typing tests during 2002 and 2003.
Five had infants</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>considered suitable donors. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So far, stem cells from the umbilical cord blood of
one infant have been</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>donated to an ailing sibling, Kuliev said. He
called the operation a</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>success but said the older child will need
continued monitoring to be</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>sure. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Another baby was born last June to an English
couple who traveled to</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Chicago after British fertility authorities denied
them permission to</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>undergo the procedure in England, said Dr. Mohammed
Taranissi, a</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>London doctor who co-authored the JAMA report. The
couple's older</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>child has Diamond-Blackfan anemia, a rare blood
ailment that can</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>lead to leukemia. Taranissi said a transplant from
the baby boy's</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>umbilical cord blood is scheduled soon.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Kuliev said the institute has done HLA embryo
testing alone for more</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>than a dozen other couples and demand is growing.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>More than 13,000 U.S. residents are diagnosed
yearly with one of</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>the leukemias involved in the research - acute
myeloid leukemia and</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>acute lymphoid leukemia, the most common childhood
leukemia. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Taranissi disagreed with ethicists concerned about
discarding</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>disease-free embryos. He noted that it often
happens with in vitro</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>fertilization, when doctors frequently create more
test-tube embryos</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>than are needed. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>With tissue-typing embryos, "you're doing this as a
lifesaving</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>procedure most of the time," Taranissi said.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>For years, families with sick children have
conceived babies without</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>costly test-tube procedures, taking a 1-in-4 chance
that the child</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>will be a match for the ailing sibling, said
University of Wisconsin</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>medical ethicist Norman Fost, who wrote a JAMA
editorial. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Some have had abortions when standard prenatal
testing showed</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>the child would not be a suitable donor, he said.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The new procedure, he noted, does not involve
abortion and poses</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>no known risks to the embryos. Furthermore, parents
seeking</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>donor babies typically are well-intentioned and
love the donor</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>children, Fost said. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"Of all the reasons people have babies, this would
seem to be a</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>wonderful reason. Most reasons are either mindless
sex or selfish</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>reasons," he said. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>--- </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>On the Net: </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>JAMA: <A
href="http://jama.ama-assn.org">http://jama.ama-assn.org</A> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>American Society for Reproductive Medicine: <A
href="http://www.asrm.org">http://www.asrm.org</A> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Presidents' Bioethics Council: <A
href="http://www.bioethics.gov">http://www.bioethics.gov</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>--------------------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Brett Paatsch</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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