Article: Birth of first "Savior Sibling" conceived in the UK with PGD

Article: 'Savior sibling' born to Fletcher family (BioNews, UK)

I've written before about the Whitakers, a family with a seriously ill son who could be cured by a bone marrow transfusion.  They hoped to use PGD to have a 'savior sibling' -- using an embryo selected because it was a tissue match for their older son.  However, the UK's HFEA (the aptly called "watchdog" organization that decides who can do what with fertility treatments in the UK) denied the Whitakers the use of PGD on the grounds that only an existing child would benefit, not the baby who would be born as the result of PGD. 

The HFEA's convoluted logic was much criticized (or criticised, it being England), as you might expect with a storyline like this:

Mr. & Mrs. Whitaker: Dear HFEA, we'd like to use PGD.
HFEA:  Well, we don't like it.  You'd better have a good reason.
Whitakers: To save the life of a child.
HFEA: Not good enough. Next!

Well, all that's old news.  The UK has changed their stance to allow PGD for savior siblings!  And, the first baby to result from this medical blessing has been born to the Fletchers in Belfast.  Their young son suffers from a very rare disease Diamond Blackfan Anemia, or DBA (just like Charlie Whitaker).  Using PGD, the Fletchers conceived a daughter to be a tissue match for a bone marrow transplant to hopefully cure him.  (In case you're worried about this procedure hurting the baby, the cord blood can be used.)