This via de AFP.
STOCKHOLM, May 28, 2007 (AFP) – Swedish authorities have granted three families the right to screen embryos to create a child who can be a stem cell donor for a sibling with a deadly illness, officials said on Monday.
The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare has approved the highly-controversial procedure for three families whose children risk dying unless they receive a transplant of healthy stem cells from a sibling with a tissue match.
Under the procedure, an embryo is tested in vitro for a desired genotype before implantation into the uterus, in what is called preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).
That has been allowed for some time in Sweden, in particular to screen for single-gene diseases such as cystic fibrosis as well as chromosomal abnormalities such as Down’s Syndrome.
But for the first time authorities will allow the embryos to be screened to find a tissue match for a sick sibling, in a process called human leukocyte antigen testing (HLA).
“The PGD procedure has been used in Sweden for years but it is the second stage of the process, the HLA, that is now being allowed,” Goeran Wennergren, professor of pediatrics at Gothenburg University and one of the experts who evaluated the applications, told AFP.
After the child is born, stem cells from its placenta and umbilical cord are transferred to the sick sibling. Once in the bone marrow, the stem cells will start producing blood cells.
These are the first cases in Sweden to be granted the procedure following a law on genetic screening that came into force in July last year.
The procedure has been criticised by some who consider the screening process unethical.
PGD/HLA treatment has already been used in the United States, Belgium and Turkey, Wennergren said.
Each individual case in Sweden has been scrutinised by the board to make sure they comply with the law, and the Board of Health and Welfare has also received statements by medical and genetic experts.
“I put in a lot of work before making my decision and spent a lot of time thinking about this. It wasn’t a very difficult decision to make once I analysed all the information,” Wennergren said.
Wennergren said he expects there to be one or two applications for PGD/HLA treatment a year in Sweden.