Ethics Essay
Investigations Essay
‘Religion and/or moral principles are a hindrance within medical ethics? Examine and comment on this claim, with reference to the topic you have investigated’.
The topic which I have investigated is Saviour Siblings. The term ‘Saviour Siblings’ is given to process of someone having another child of the same genetic material to save another existing child’s life. The topic of Saviour Siblings is very conversational as it raises many ethical dilemmas and disagreements between different religious principles and viewpoints. In this essay I will explore wheather or not different religious/ moral principles are a hindrance to medical ethics.
There have many cases in which the method of Saviour Siblings had to be used to save an existing child’s life. Out of many cases there were two major two cases which captured a large amount of media attention and they were the Whitakers and the Hashmis. In 2000, Charlie Whitaker was born with a extremely rare genetic condition known as ‘Diamond Blackfan Anaemia’, his parents Michelle and Jayson prayed after help for his condition but his only chance of survival was by stem cell transplant. In the need of Charlie’s best chances of surviving the Whitakers tried to conceive a ‘Saviour Sibling’ naturally but where unsuccessful. A license for a Saviour Sibling for them was also rejected, so Charlie’s parents tried one last time and flew to America in desperate need for treatment and finally from there they conceived Jamie Whitaker, Charlie’s Saviour Sibling, from his umbilical cord they took blood and gave Charlie a stem cell transfusion which was successful and by 2004 everything was all clear for Charlie and his life was saved.
The other case which received a lot of media attention was the case of Zain Hashmi. Zain Hashmi was born with Beta Thalassaemia, a rare fatal genetic blood disorder. Zain had to undergo regular blood transfusions and could have died without a bone marrow transplant. His only chance of
‘Religion and/or moral principles are a hindrance within medical ethics? Examine and comment on this claim, with reference to the topic you have investigated’.
The topic which I have investigated is Saviour Siblings. The term ‘Saviour Siblings’ is given to process of someone having another child of the same genetic material to save another existing child’s life. The topic of Saviour Siblings is very conversational as it raises many ethical dilemmas and disagreements between different religious principles and viewpoints. In this essay I will explore wheather or not different religious/ moral principles are a hindrance to medical ethics.
There have many cases in which the method of Saviour Siblings had to be used to save an existing child’s life. Out of many cases there were two major two cases which captured a large amount of media attention and they were the Whitakers and the Hashmis. In 2000, Charlie Whitaker was born with a extremely rare genetic condition known as ‘Diamond Blackfan Anaemia’, his parents Michelle and Jayson prayed after help for his condition but his only chance of survival was by stem cell transplant. In the need of Charlie’s best chances of surviving the Whitakers tried to conceive a ‘Saviour Sibling’ naturally but where unsuccessful. A license for a Saviour Sibling for them was also rejected, so Charlie’s parents tried one last time and flew to America in desperate need for treatment and finally from there they conceived Jamie Whitaker, Charlie’s Saviour Sibling, from his umbilical cord they took blood and gave Charlie a stem cell transfusion which was successful and by 2004 everything was all clear for Charlie and his life was saved.
The other case which received a lot of media attention was the case of Zain Hashmi. Zain Hashmi was born with Beta Thalassaemia, a rare fatal genetic blood disorder. Zain had to undergo regular blood transfusions and could have died without a bone marrow transplant. His only chance of