Conceiving a fetus for bone marrow donation: an ethical problem in prenatal diagnosis.
We present a family who sought prenatal diagnosis in order to bear a healthy child to serve as an HLA-identical bone marrow donor for their son affected with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome. They intended to abort HLA-incompatible fetuses who would have been unsuitable bone marrow donors. This case led us to conclude that prenatal diagnosis should not be used to benefit a third party or facilitate the conception or abortion of a fetus for the purpose of generating an organ for transplantation. The limits of parental autonomy and physician responsibility are discussed.
Clark
R D
RD
Harbor/UCLA Medical Center, Torrance.
Fletcher
J
J
Petersen
G
G
D037881:Aborted Fetus; D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002140:California; D033001:Directed Tissue Donation; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus; D005817:Genetic Counseling; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D037841:Pregnant People; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D012732:Sex Determination Analysis; D035781:Siblings; D014019:Tissue Donors; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D014923:Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome / Q000235:genetics* / Q000628:therapy