Couple trying to create 'designer baby' to save ailing son's life win backing at Court of Appeal

A couple who want to conceive a "designer baby" in the hope of using blood from the umbilical cord to save the life of their son won approval from the Court of Appeal yesterday.

Raj and Shahana Hashmi said they were "absolutely thrilled" by the decision after the Appeal Court overturned a High Court ruling that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) had acted beyond its powers in authorising the treatment. "We have said all along that at the centre of this case was our son, a little boy who suffers greatly. We are also delighted because this case opens the door to other families who are suffering. Whether or not we succeed, this decision has given Zain and us new hope," Mrs Hashmi said.

The couple are expected to start treatment as soon as possible at the fertility clinic at the Park Hospital in Nottingham. Their first two attempts failed and they were about to try for a third time when the pressure group Core (Comment of Reproductive Ethics) won the High Court action in December and halted the treatment.

Simon Fishel, medical director of the Park Hospital clinic, said: "I am absolutely delighted for the Hashmis in particular and all our other patients who wish to remain in the UK for their treatment. I am relieved that this judgment, once and for all, supports the HFEA as the proper regulatory body for licensing these technologies."

Four-year-old Zain Hashmi suffers from the inherited blood disease thalassaemia. He needs regular blood transfusions but is not expected to survive without a bone-marrow graft or stem-cell transplant.

A search for a donor failed to turn up a suitable match, even among his four siblings, so the couple's only hope is to have another baby. They will use IVF techniques to select an embryo that is free of the disease and tissue typed to provide a match.

Critics argued that the process was a step on the road to creating designer babies wanted not for themselves but for certain specific qualities.

After a long period of deliberation, the HFEA agreed to sanction the treatment on the basis that the Hashmis' embryos would have to be selected in any case for those affected by thalassaemia to be screened out. The tissue typing to ensure that the new baby provided a match for Zain was simply an extra procedure that could be done at the same time, it said.

The HFEA had refused a request from another couple who wanted IVF and tissue typing to provide a match for an existing sibling, but where there was no inherited disease whose avoidance made embryo selection necessary.

Suzi Leather, the chairwoman of the HFEA, said the Hashmis would now be able to continue with their treatment. "Clearly, clinicians cannot always prevent diseases but if they are able to and also save the life of a sibling, then this is a legitimate use of these new techniques."

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the British Medical Association's ethics and science spokesman, said: "The Court of Appeal has made the right decision to allow tissue matching to take place in order to save Zain Hashmi's life. We are delighted for the Hashmi family."

Josephine Quintavalle of Core said: "There are serious issues at stake here and from that perspective it is a defeat for society at large and certainly an overwhelming defeat for parliamentary democracy."

How the treatment could work

1. Egg and sperm are mixed to produced fertilised embryos

2. Fertilised embryos are allowed to grow to the eight cell stage in petri dish (test-tube)

3. One cell is removed by biopsy

4. The cell is tested for thalassaemia using genetic markers

5. The cell is tissue typed to ensure a match with Zain

6. Once an embryo is found that is free of thalassaemia and a match for Zain it is replaced in the womb

7. When baby is born, blood rich in stem cells is taken from umbilical cord and transfused into the sick child to cure the disease