One month after her baby brother was born, doctors collected cells from his umbilical cord and infused them into his sister Molly's circulatory system. In the procedure, a woman takes drugs to stimulate the production of multiple eggs, which are fertilised by her husband's sperm in a laboratory dish. The resulting embryos are tested, and embryos found free of a specific disease and considered good matches for transplant are implanted in the mother's womb. The Nashes went through the process five times before the selection of an embryo that led to Adam's birth. The best treatment is a transfer of stem cells found in the umbilical blood of a sibling because the recipient's body is not likely to reject them.
Stem cells can develop into bone marrow cells.
The survival rate for someone with Fanconi anaemia is 31 per cent after a transplant from someone who is not related, but that jumps to 85 per cent for blood from a sibling. The case of Molly Nash raises a host of ethical questions. It is thought to be the first time that a baby has been 'designed' to save the life of another sibling. The practice of genetically screening embryos to create transplant donors raises questions about parents' ability to choose the traits of their children. Molly's parents had long wanted more children, but were afraid to conceive another for fear that any new baby would be affected by the disease.