On October 12th, a baby was born in Sevilla who had been ‘genetically selected’ in order to be able to cure his brother who suffers from beta-thalassemia major, a severe congenital anemia that requires him to undergo constant blood transfusions. It was the first such birth in Spain.
The parents chose Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) to ensure that they could conceive a child absolutely compatible with his brother and who would be the ideal donor.
The Secretaría General de la Conferencia Episcopal (Secretariat of the Episcopal Conference) has condemned the eugenic practices used in the baby’s birth to make it free of inherited disease in order to help cure his brother.
The Conference points out that embryos not selected through PGD are frozen or destroyed, and they say the happy news of the birth of a new child is muted by the tragic fact of the removal of diseased embryos and, eventually, those which, while healthy, were not genetically compatible.
They also add that the birth of a human person has been accompanied by the destruction of others, their own brothers, who have been deprived of the fundamental right to life. They have been discarded for not being useful from a technical perspective, thereby violating their dignity and absolute respect that everyone deserves in itself, irrespective of any utilitarian consideration.