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Swedish authorities have granted three families the right to screen embryos to create a child who can be a stem cell donor for a sibling with a deadly illness, officials said on Monday.
The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare has approved the highly-controversial procedure for three families whose children risk dying unless they receive a transplant of healthy stem cells from a sibling with a tissue match.
Under the procedure, an embryo is tested in vitro for a desired genotype before implantation into the uterus, in what is called preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).
That has been allowed for some time in Sweden, in particular to screen for single-gene diseases such as cystic fibrosis as well as chromosomal abnormalities such as Down's Syndrome.
But for the first time authorities will allow the embryos to be screened to find a tissue match for a sick sibling, in a process called human leukocyte antigen testing (HLA).
"The PGD procedure has been used in Sweden for years but it is the second stage of the process, the HLA, that is now being...