Ethical Issues Concerning “Savior Offspring.”

Tissue transplantation is a procedure used to treat a wide range of medical disorders. Suitable tissue for transplant, however, is often in short supply. Thus, some people conceive offspring for the sole purpose of harvesting compatible tissue, e.g., for transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells in a sibling or parent. A 2004 survey found that most Americans approve of using genetic testing of in vitro fertilized embryos to allow for the selective implantation of an embryo with compatible tissue for use in a sick older sibling. However, while using stem cells from the umbilicus of a newborn for medical treatments is relatively well accepted, using from tissue from an aborted fetus remains controversial. In my thesis, I examine the ethical issues that arise from the use of tissue from "savior offspring" in medicine, employing both survey tools as well as literature review. When the values were added from their perspective categories, the P-values indicate that age, gender, religion and political affiliation had no effect on the how the survey was answered.