Post by BSam on Mar 8, 2004 0:28:15 GMT -5
www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8900354%255E921,00.html
from today's mercury...
what do people think of this?
i was thinking of putting this in the cloning thread, but it was large and deserved a therad of it's own...
from today's mercury...
Designer baby first for Tassie
By ZOE TAYLOR and JANE LOVIBOND
08mar04
A SOUTHERN Tasmanian couple has been involved in ground-breaking IVF procedures to produce Australia's first designer baby.
The boy will be a lifesaving sibling for the couple's son who has an incurable genetic disease.
Stephen and Leanne opted for the sophisticated treatment in Sydney to ensure their second child would not only be free of the disease but compatible in a bone-marrow transplant for four-year-old BJ.
Had the couple conceived naturally, they ran the risk of having a baby affected by or carrying the rare immune deficiency.
But Leanne, 34, is now pregnant with a healthy baby boy who will also offer BJ a gift of life.
BJ's only certainty for survival is a bone-marrow transplant but no one in his family is a tissue match.
Hobart IVF doctor Bill Watkins, who referred Leanne and 35-year-old Stephen to the Sydney clinic, said the technique used was highly specialised.
Dr Watkins said Leanne's pregnancy was fantastic news.
"It has been a pretty hard road for them," he said.
"Leanne has had a number of cycles of treatment to get to this point in Sydney."
Dr Watkins said only a handful of cases in Tasmania required such specialised genetic work which was now available at five or six centres interstate.
Scientists at pioneering clinic Sydney IVF developed a test to screen potential embryos to avoid the inherited disease known as hyper-IgM syndrome.
They were also able to help the couple to conceive a brother who will be a tissue match and a lifesaver for BJ - by using stem cells from the discarded umbilical cord for a transplant.
Only one other case in the world of a child born to save another has been recorded in medical journals - that of Adam Nash who was conceived in America in 2000 to save his sister Molly who had a blood disorder.
The Tasmanian parents, known only by their christian names to protect their son's identity, are excited at the breakthrough.
A delighted Leanne, 14 weeks pregnant, said: "This was our ultimate aim, but we thought it was pie-in-the-sky stuff to begin with.
"We were going to have another child anyway. We would have gone naturally and taken the risk if this had not worked."
The rare syndrome affects BJ's immune system, leaving him prone to infections including serious bacterial infections of the lungs. He relies on weekly hospital visits for antibiotics and blood transfusions.
After BJ was diagnosed, Sydney IVF scientists took 18 months to develop a test to allow them to screen for the syndrome embryos created in the lab by fertilising eggs from Leanne with Stephen's sperm.
By ZOE TAYLOR and JANE LOVIBOND
08mar04
A SOUTHERN Tasmanian couple has been involved in ground-breaking IVF procedures to produce Australia's first designer baby.
The boy will be a lifesaving sibling for the couple's son who has an incurable genetic disease.
Stephen and Leanne opted for the sophisticated treatment in Sydney to ensure their second child would not only be free of the disease but compatible in a bone-marrow transplant for four-year-old BJ.
Had the couple conceived naturally, they ran the risk of having a baby affected by or carrying the rare immune deficiency.
But Leanne, 34, is now pregnant with a healthy baby boy who will also offer BJ a gift of life.
BJ's only certainty for survival is a bone-marrow transplant but no one in his family is a tissue match.
Hobart IVF doctor Bill Watkins, who referred Leanne and 35-year-old Stephen to the Sydney clinic, said the technique used was highly specialised.
Dr Watkins said Leanne's pregnancy was fantastic news.
"It has been a pretty hard road for them," he said.
"Leanne has had a number of cycles of treatment to get to this point in Sydney."
Dr Watkins said only a handful of cases in Tasmania required such specialised genetic work which was now available at five or six centres interstate.
Scientists at pioneering clinic Sydney IVF developed a test to screen potential embryos to avoid the inherited disease known as hyper-IgM syndrome.
They were also able to help the couple to conceive a brother who will be a tissue match and a lifesaver for BJ - by using stem cells from the discarded umbilical cord for a transplant.
Only one other case in the world of a child born to save another has been recorded in medical journals - that of Adam Nash who was conceived in America in 2000 to save his sister Molly who had a blood disorder.
The Tasmanian parents, known only by their christian names to protect their son's identity, are excited at the breakthrough.
A delighted Leanne, 14 weeks pregnant, said: "This was our ultimate aim, but we thought it was pie-in-the-sky stuff to begin with.
"We were going to have another child anyway. We would have gone naturally and taken the risk if this had not worked."
The rare syndrome affects BJ's immune system, leaving him prone to infections including serious bacterial infections of the lungs. He relies on weekly hospital visits for antibiotics and blood transfusions.
After BJ was diagnosed, Sydney IVF scientists took 18 months to develop a test to allow them to screen for the syndrome embryos created in the lab by fertilising eggs from Leanne with Stephen's sperm.
what do people think of this?
i was thinking of putting this in the cloning thread, but it was large and deserved a therad of it's own...
