Katelynn Johnson
11/29/2013
Spare-Part Babies
Imagine you have a child who has a very deadly disease and the only way for this child to live is by
finding a matching donor. You would do anything to keep this very ill child alive but how far is too far.
This is the question I asked when I heard about Savior siblings. Savior sibling is a child that is made to be
matching donor for this ill sibling. They do this by pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, to create a child
that is an exact tissue matches to the ill siblings. This way whatever the ill sibling needs it can get it from
the Savior sibling. For example the Savior sibling will be made to match the ill sibling’s blood type so
from the moment it’s born it can give the ill sibling their umbilical cord blood. Unfortunately it doesn’t
stop there they also can and most likely will take bone marrow, stem cells, and spare organs and
anything else that may to keep this ill child alive. So, I ask you, is it alright to make another child and put
it through a live of misery just to save the child you have now? Savior Siblings lives a very hard a painful
life from the moment of conception. Not only the physical effects but the psychological effects as well.
There are also some psychological effects on the ill sibling.
A Savior Siblings lives a very hard a painful life from the moment of conception. Even for
conception these savior sibling are in the hospital being made by PGD. What is this you may ask? “Its
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis it’s a recently developed reproductive technology used to screen for
genetic diseases.” It’s also to screen the resulting embryos for exact “HLA (human leukocyte antigens/
bone marrow, DNA found on chromosome six)” match to an ill child. How they do this is by having a
“doctor/ PGD specialist places an eggs and various sperm into a glass test tube (hence, in vitro) and
waits for the sperm to fertilize the eggs. Multiple embryos are created through this process and then
screened so that those which match the characteristics parents demand are selected to survive. The
specialist chooses the embryo that is then placed back into the child’s mother.” All other embryos are
discarded this bring up the ethical debate about killing innocence.
From the moment of conception the Savior sibling is denied their right to make medical
decision. Once this Savior sibling is born he or she will donates her or his umbilical cord blood (UCB) to
its ill sibling. If the UCB transplant fails, parents may be faced with a decision about a bone marrow
harvest from the infant as early as the first months of life. There are two different ways of collecting
stem cells the first is apheresis and another is bone marrow harvest. The first one apheresis is less risky
for the donor but at the age and the size difference of the sibling we are talking about it takes on a
higher risk factor. Apheresis is where the donor is connected to a “special cell separation machine via a
needle inserted in arm veins. Blood is taken from one vein and is circulated though the machine which
removes the stem cells and returns the remaining blood and plasma back to the donor through another
needle inserted into the opposite arm.” Also prior to the donation the donor has to be on a special
medication to stimulate the bone marrow to increase production of new stem cells. The risks with
donating this way are “bleeding and a tendency to bleed (because clotting factors are removed),
infection and a tendency toward infection (because the immune system is somewhat suppressed when
antibodies are removed), low blood pressure (as fluids are removed), muscle cramping (as low blood
calcium can occur and other electrolytes can be imbalanced).” All of these risks are raised significantly
and other risks are added because of the size difference of the sibling and age. They need so much form
the savior sibling that most of the time they have to give the savior sibling a blood transfusion because
he or she has a negative effect because of the blood loss. Normal children that are healthy do need to
have blood transfusion, because they have what they need. What these parents are doing is taking
what this helpless Childs needs to survive and giving it to the ill sibling and leave the savior sibling to rot
and become sick. The next way to donate is bone marrow harvesting “this involves collecting stem cells
with a needle placed into the soft center of the bone, the marrow. Most sites used for bone marrow
harvesting are located in the hip bones and the sternum. The procedure takes place in the operating
room. The donor will be anesthetized during the harvest.” The savior sibling will most likely be in much
pain because of the donations. The major complication of this is the heart complications because the
donor is undergoing constant donations of blood and bone marrow to his or hers ill sibling. This
otherwise healthy child wouldn’t have these complication if it didn’t have to continually donate to his or
hers ill sibling.
One real example of a savior sibling donation complication was documented in a clinical case
study by Doctor Steven Joffe at the Children’s Hospital the study was dealing with 17 months old and
the sibling that is 7 months old. Joffe report that, “A bone marrow transplant was scheduled. The night
before the donation, however, and after the recipient had been given pre-transplant conditioning; the
donor developed a temperature of 104º F. The results in a rapid respiratory syncytial virus (RVS) test
were Positive. (160). This Savior sibling Develop RVS in a very short amount of time because of the Pretransplant condition. These types of respiratory virus that this very young donor developed doesn’t
normal accrue in babies. This is a perfect example of where if this infant wasn’t volunteered by his or her
parents to donate to their sibling they would have never developed RSV or any medical effects like that.
Not only are the physical effects serious they also come with psychological effects and they are
very concerning as well. The most come reason of these psychological effect is because of the fact the
parents had him or her to save their First child. The parents aren’t thinking about the effect that it will
have on this child that their having to save his or hers life. Doctor Shih-Ning Then, who is a professor at
the Queensland University in Australia, has created a scenario that would best represent how a “Savior
Sibling” might feel about his or her life. “We turn now to the idea that savior siblings will be
psychologically harmed. Therese seems to be two linked but analytically separate concerns here: first,
that a future child may suffer psychological harm if she finds out that she was wanted not for herself,
but as a means to save the life of a sibling; and second, that she may enjoy a less close loving
relationship with her parents who are less likely to value and nurture her given that they want her in
order to save the life of her sibling” (Then 151).
Doctor Then stated two very real possibilities of the Savior sibling feeling to the family he or she is
brought into. Although one possibility that Doctor Then didn’t state was what would happen to the
savior sibling if the ill sibling dies. The savior sibling will be over whelmed with guilt because the ill
sibling is the only reason for their existence. DR. Robert Krell, a Holocaust survivor and highly known
Children’s psychologist discusses this effect on sibling’s death on a child.” Surviving sibling not
infrequently become the focus of maneuvers unconsciously designed to alleviate guilt and control fate
through silence and efforts to maintain silence, through substitution for the lost child, and through
endowing the survivor-child with qualities of the deceased”(471). If this child was not a Savior sibling he
or she would feel upset by the death of a sibling but not guilty for causing it. The reason the savior
sibling is feeling so guilty is because the parent place all their hopes of saving the ill sibling that the
savior sibling feels personal responsible for his or hers sibling death. This is another reason Savior sibling
are unethical because a child should never have to feel as if something this major is their fault because
their parents designed them to be an object for their siblings needs.
The Conception of a child to be a “Savior Sibling” by parent to save the already existing child is
not only ethically wrong but cruel to the unborn child because of the effects the will be placed on this
child physically and psychologically. Not only are these effects on their body tolling but can lead to very
serious psychological issues to develop as a child who realizes that the only reason they exist is because
they have a sick sibling. Being a Savior sibling might seem like a noble life but in reality it’s just pain and
suffering from what they must do to try and save their ill sibling. Although a life of being a savior sibling
isn’t as bad as being a savior sibling who lost their ill sibling. This savior sibling will feel responsible for
what has happened to ill sibling. Any parent who allows an artificially created child to be conceived like
this is unethical in so many different ways, but in the end it all comes down to the one who truly suffers
in all of this the “Savior sibling”.
Works Cited
Carmo, Mariana Do. "The Bioethics Project 2012 - The Medically Modified Human." The Bioethics
Project 2012 - The Medically Modified Human. N.p., 13 Feb. 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
<http://www.thebioethicsproject.org/essays/child-autonomy-and-the-rights-to-ones-own-bodypgd-and-parental-decision-making/>.
Joffe, Steven. "Bone Marrow Donation Between Siblings Living In Different
Families." Pediatrics 127.1 (2011): 158-162. Health Source - Consumer Edition. Web. EBSCOhost.
27 Aug.2012.
Krell, Robert, and Leslie Rabkin. "The Effects of Sibling Death on the Surviving Child: A
Family Perspective." Family Process Journal Library. 18.4 (1979): 471-77. Web.
Ohio State University . "Bone Marrow Transplantation." Bone Marrow Transplantation. N.p., n.d. Web.
11 Dec. 2013
.<http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/patientcare/healthcare_services/blood_disorders/bone_marrow_tra
nsplantation/Pages/index.aspx>.
Stöppler, MD, Melissa Conrad, and William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR. "How is apheresis
performed? - Apheresis Procedure Information and Risks of Hemapheresis and Pheresis MedicineNet." MedicineNet. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
<http://www.medicinenet.com/hemapheresis/page2.htm#complication>.