LONDON — The decision by Britain’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to allow the selection of an embryo that would be a tissue match for an existing seriously ill sibling has been sharply criticized by leading church officials.
The decision came in a case involving the plight of 2-year-old Joshua Fletcher of Northern Ireland. He has a potentially fatal blood disorder called Diamond Blackfan anemia, which can be treated by using stem cells to stimulate his body to produce healthy red blood cells.
But neither his parents nor his 5-year-old brother have tissues that match his closely enough.
Once society allows a human life to be deliberately produced, and then selected or destroyed, simply to benefit another, it has lost its ethical bearings, said Roman Catholic Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff, Wales, chairman of the department of Christian responsibility and citizenship.
The HFEA’s decision has also come in for criticism from the Church of England.
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