'Designer baby' born to UK couple
A boy has been born to a British couple who want to use stem cells from his umbilical cord to treat an older brother with a life threatening blood disorder.
Michelle and Jayson Whitaker's baby, Jamie, was genetically selected while he was still an embryo to be a near perfect match to four-year-old Charlie.
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It is not the first UK baby selected to help cure a sibling - a couple whose child was suffering from leukaemia and needed a bone marrow transplant took the same route in 2001.
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Painful treatment
Dr Lana Rechitsky from the Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago, who matched the Whitaker tissues, told the BBC Jamie was the second baby born in Britain as a tissue match.
But the condition of the sibling of the first child has gone into remission and treatment had not been necessary so far.
Jamie's brother suffers from a rare and potentially fatal form of anaemia, which requires a regular, painful treatment.
It can only be cured by a transplant of stem cells from a sibling with a perfect tissue match.
Mr Whitaker, a 33-year-old business manager who recently moved to Derbyshire from Bicester in Oxfordshire,said that he and his wife had made the right decision.
A boy has been born to a British couple who want to use stem cells from his umbilical cord to treat an older brother with a life threatening blood disorder.
Michelle and Jayson Whitaker's baby, Jamie, was genetically selected while he was still an embryo to be a near perfect match to four-year-old Charlie.
.......
It is not the first UK baby selected to help cure a sibling - a couple whose child was suffering from leukaemia and needed a bone marrow transplant took the same route in 2001.
........
Painful treatment
Dr Lana Rechitsky from the Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago, who matched the Whitaker tissues, told the BBC Jamie was the second baby born in Britain as a tissue match.
But the condition of the sibling of the first child has gone into remission and treatment had not been necessary so far.
Jamie's brother suffers from a rare and potentially fatal form of anaemia, which requires a regular, painful treatment.
It can only be cured by a transplant of stem cells from a sibling with a perfect tissue match.
Mr Whitaker, a 33-year-old business manager who recently moved to Derbyshire from Bicester in Oxfordshire,said that he and his wife had made the right decision.