Designer Savior Baby

The article about the Christian response to designer babies presented a very interesting ethical dilemma.  If one of their children is going to die from a medical condition, but it is possible to save him by having another child and using a stem cell transplant from its umbilical cord, is it ethical to do so?  Some argue that this is a noble reason to have a child, while some argue that it is immoral because it commodifies the life of the new child, and will inflict psychological damage when the child learns why he or she was born.

I believe that the morality of this action rests on the truth of the parents’ claim that the new child will be “a cherished member of a loving family.”  Children who were born as “accidents” sometimes struggle with feelings of being less wanted, but in the end, the most important thing is whether they truly understand the sincerity of the love from their parents.

When I imagine myself in this situation, it is difficult to judge how I would have felt growing up with the knowledge that I had been born for this reason, so I think a better scenario might be to imagine if I found out now that this was the case.  I know that my parents love me, and I have spent 21 years getting to better understand the depth of that, and finding out now that they had had me to use my stem cells would not invalidate that.   I would probably struggle with it a little, and that would be a burden my parents put on me, but the love they have given me would more than make up for it.  A far greater burden to put on a child would be two parents with a history of depression having a child they knew would probably struggle with it as well, but this is considered acceptable, and so should the case in the article.