Creating a Life to Save a Life - Case Study Example

Creating a Life to Save a Life Introduction Creating a life to save a life is a concept that gives rise to the term "savior siblings" referring to those children unto whom conception is to some extent motivated as a result of the parents desire to get human stem cells so as to make treatment available to a life child suffering from a life-threatening sickness. PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis is a very important footstep to guarantee that the embryo that is to be implanted to the uterus of a woman does not suffer from a similar genetic illness that the life child has. There are various alternatives available to those couples with the pre existing danger facing them regarding the high probability that they may conceive a child who has a harsh genetic circumstances common within their family history. This may involve: pursuing parenthood through adoption and foregoing conceiving children who have blood ties, applying a collaborative reproductive procedure e.g. surrogacy or donation of an egg, embryo or sperm with a parent who is free of the genetic illness being the child's genetic parent, following conception women may undertake pre natal diagnosis i.e. PND though the procedure involved has an inherent risk and also raises a challenge in the decision as to whether to terminate the a pregnancy of a fetus which is affected. PND is recognized and a number of women have continually ended pregnancies in their effort to conceive a child with no genetic illness under debate. PGD/embryo screening has the merit that it informs a woman whether her baby is affected or not with the genetic problem In question or under test during her initial stages of her pregnancy; this enables the said woman to make an informed decision as to whether to terminate or continue with the pregnancy. As such, owing to the ethical, psychological and physical reasons, PGD option is more preferred to PND/fetal screening. The initial PGD application was reported in 1989 and so far it is applied as detect quite a big number of a genetic conditions e.g. determining embryo's sex ( this have medical relevance for sex-related conditions such as hemophilia and Duchene's muscular dystrophy), identification of the single gene conditions such as spinal muscular atrophy, thalassaemia and cystic fibrosis. Human Leucocytes Antigen tissue typing together with PGD may make it certain the fact that an embryo is not affected by a severe genetic condition/s and also guarantee that the said child possibly will be a tissue-matched donor for an existing affected sibling requiring stem cell transplant. The embryo is not prone to extra risk as the equivalent biopsy carried out for PGD may be applied to check for tissue typing. Donating cord blood stem cell is not invasive, thus postnatal intervention concerning the "savior sibling" is not possible, and hence, no physical harm risk is incurred. I agree with the authority's decision of rejecting the request by the Whitaker family on the basis that it was not right to create a human life with the express intent of saving another life. There are various ethical arguments in opposition to the notion of 'saviour siblings' i.e. wrongful instrumentalization of the child, welfare of the child and slippery slope. Wrongful Instrumentalization of the Child Wrongful instrumentalization of the child is founded on the grounds that any child should be sought for his/her own sake. The concept of wrongful instrumentalization holds both the notion of choosing the character of a child and conceiving him or her so as to provide the ends of another child. The 'savior siblings' idea renders its application as a tool even though for superior ends. In case of conceivement of a savior sibling, he/she should be taken care of as a human being with his/her personal rights. It can not be accepted where the single reason for conceiving a child as a "savior sibling" is to make available a supply of stem cells that will be utilized to take care of a child on hand ( Immanuel kant pp) Welfare of the Child Welfare of the child puts in a nutshell the psychological and the physical well-being. for the short term and as a minimum there isn't contemporary indications of bodily harm to a "savior sibling" in any case. There exists a good deal of speculations regarding both the benefits and impairment on the psychological well-being. A number of factors may lead to a potential injury to a donor child: great anticipation from the donor child may result in undue psychological injury especially in a case where the cord blood transplant fails, the donor child might carry the blame for not meeting the expectations (this mostly happens in a case where the bigger sibling passes away; on the other hand, there can be pressure to contribute bone marrow for succeeding transplant. A probable misdiagnosis might make the "savior sibling" anticipated badly affected with the genetic condition or inappropriate as a tissue-matched donor. It is probable that the welfare of the donor child to that of the bigger/older child may be treated as inferior and consequently the donor child might realize the fact he/she was only wanted as a way to secure the survival of his/her ailing sibling and not for him/herself. Despite this potential harm, on the side of the "savior sibling" there exists potential benefits in that the donor child might on the realization he/she successively saved his/her dear sibling's life and that he/she stands to gain from the company of the saved child. This puts an emphasis on the need to promote the wellbeing of the particular donor child in the family context because his/her psychological, emotional and social interests relies heavily on the wellbeing of her/his family. This simply means that, it is in the best interests of the donor child to save the life of the ailing child as this will wipe out the grieve from the parents and thus a happier family from which he/she will benefit. Slippery Slope The notion of "savior siblings" has aroused numerous concerns that have been marked with a lot of apprehension. E.g. what will regulate the commencement of units that include 'savior daughters' or 'savior sons', etc If the idea of "savior siblings" for the donation of cord blood stem cells is allowed, what is to impede donation ending there How will we distinguish the individuals in support the anticipated donor child gets conceived. There might be unavoidable circumstances where the donor child will be forced to "donate" bone marrow in case the ailing sibling degenerate necessitating further treatment or when the umbilical cord stem cell transplant fails. Putting into consideration the well established technology, what will prevent the notion of the children based on "desirable uniqueness" say personality, IQ, hair color, eye color etc. Nevertheless, the slippery slope can not be avoided and thus Regulatory authorities in various countries ought to build up and implement rules as to what uses of PGD are permitted and which are not subsequent to appropriate considerations on likely social and ethical implications. Conclusion The "savior sibling" conception needs to be handled one by one and the system in place should be in a position to handle them promptly. The circumstances of the ailing child is needed to be adequately life-threatening and harsh, and a reasonable probability of a successful treatment must be present; But the embryo must not be modified genetically to give a tissue match. In our case study, the parents proposed to modify in vitro fertilization where they will use new screening techniques; they would screen the embryos to see which would be most able to donate blood-making cells to Charlie. That would be the one that they would choose to implant and bring to term. Hence I agree with the decision of the authority. Difference between a Theory of Virtue and Theories of Obligation Theory of virtue is a subdivision of moral philosophy which puts an emphasis on character as opposed to consequences or rules as the fundamental element of ethical/moral thinking. Virtue theory does not emphasis on the importance of learning the rules and on the contrary they emphasis on developing good habits of character e.g. benevolence. According to Plato four main virtues are very important i.e. sincerity, good temper, self-respect, generosity and fortitude. Virtue theory holds that we should strive not to acquire negative character vices or traits such as vanity, injustice, insensibility and cowardice Theory of Obligation refers to a standard or set of standards that state sufficient and necessary conditions for the wrongness/rightness of every probable human action under whichever probable set of conditions. E.g. an act is correct if and only if it will give the most favorable results under whichever probable set of conditions, or an action is correct if and only if it does not infringe the set Ten Commandments. Theories of obligation are of two types i.e. consequentialist and non consequentialist. For the former wrong or right relies exclusively on the consequences as opposed to the latter. Strengths of Virtue Ethics Virtue ethics places does not place a lot of emphasis on the particular rules that people must follow in their day to day living on earth, on the contrary it focuses on assisting the people to build up their character/nature which includes generosity, caring and kindness. This develops an individual to become a better person owing to our better making of judgment on important decisions. So by applying traits such as generosity, caring and kindness as our basis for making decisions, each an individual and the whole of human race will be made better because of the counter effect that breaks down every bad habit that each and individual happens to carry wiping them in the long term. The virtue theory avoids the problematic responsibilities of employing a formula to understand what we must do, and as an alternative focusing on the sort of people we should be. The difficulty lies in defining what sort of persons we should be. Or, we may frame it this manner: how we define the virtues Virtue theory proposes that key features of a particular virtue should be applicable universally both to men and women. This helps to avoid culture shock when individuals from different cultures interact. Weakness of Virtue Ethics Establishing the particular nature of the actual virtues is very difficult. Different societies, cultures and people share varying opinions of what comprises a virtue e.g. people used to consider a virtuous woman as the one who was industrious, servile and quiet, but in the modern society this notion doesn't hold any more. This is because the definition does not assume a universal applicability as it refers to servility as a virtue for females and not for men. The virtue theory focuses on the kind of qualities that an individual should foster so that he/she can turn out to be a good person. This completely ignores the type of actions that are morally allowed and those which are not. E.g. some people may argue that, a person who commits a capital offence is lacking virtues that are imperative such as fairness and compassion; others will argue that murder is an intrinsically impermissible or immoral kind of action. References Cambridge University Press. Viewed February 12, 2009 From Devettere, R.J, 2000, Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics: Cases and Concepts. Georgetown University Press, Washington DC Emily E.A. 2007, "Saviour Siblings" and Ethical Value. S.A: Johannesburg university press Faunce, T.A & Jefferys S. 'Whistleblowing and Scientific Misconduct: Renewing Legal and Virtue Ethics Foundations' Journal of Medicine and Law 2007, Vol.26 no.3 pp. 567-84 Garcia, J.E, 2009. eMedicineHealth: In Vitro Fertilization Introduction. Viewed on October 8, 2005 Martin, M.W. & Schinzinger R, 2003. Ethics in engineering, New York: Plenum Press McCloskey, D. 2007. The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pojman, L.P. & Fieser, J. 2009. Virtue Theory In Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong 6th Ed. pp. 146-169 Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Stanley, W.O. 2006. Creating a life to save a life Reflections on the conception of "Saviour Siblings" University of Nairobi, Excel Press Stanley, W.O. 2006, Creating a life to save a life Reflections on the conception of "Saviour Siblings" University of Nairobi, Excel Press Wulf, S.J. 2008, A Philosophical Theory of Citizenship: Obligation, Authority, and Membership. From Read More