British judges back 'designer baby' law

Creating so-called "designer babies" to help parents treat sick children is lawful and should not be banned, Britain's highest court ruled yesterday, rejecting an appeal against an earlier ruling.

The country's five Law Lords unanimously backed a 2003 ruling that gave the green light to parents who want to extract genetic material from a baby brother or sister to treat a terminally ill sibling.

Yesterday's case centred on six-year-old Zain Hashmi, whose parents wanted a baby with a correct tissue match to help treat his life-threatening blood disorder. Zain's parents have begun treatment to create a baby, but have so far been unsuccessful.

Proponents say the technology, which involves harvesting stem cells - or master cells - for transplantation to an ill child, is ultimately about saving lives.

But the procedure of choosing a child based on his or her genetic material has raised complex legal and ethical arguments and led critics to charge scientists and parents with "playing God".

"Today's decision from the House of Lords takes us further down the slippery slope in creating human beings to provide 'spare parts' for another," British pro-life charity LIFE said in a statement.