freedom of child

(0) Many loving (A) parent would not (B) hesitate to sacrifice their own (C) lives to save their child’s, but should they create a new life to rescue an (D) endangered son or daughter? A Los Angeles couple, Abe and Mary Ayala, has taken just such an unusual step. (1) (A) On May, Mary will give birth to a baby girl (B) who was purposely (C) conceived to serve as a bone-marrow donor (D) for her ailing older sister. Anissa, 17, was found to have a virulent form of leukemia nearly two years ago, and her only hope is a transplant of compatible bone marrow that could allow her to produce healthy white blood cells. Tests indicate that the baby has compatible tissue. With marrow from her sister, Anissa has a 70% chance of being cured. Says Abe of the unborn girl, who will be named Marissa: “This is our miracle baby.” As joyous as their news is so far, the Ayalas’ actions raise some unsettling ethical questions. Chief among them is the question of whether it is right to conceive children expressly so that theycan be donors. It is a dilemma that faces increasing numbers of parents today as researchers make possible more transplants of organs from living people. For the Ayalas, the drastic measure was a last resort. Neither Abe nor Mary has marrow that matches Anissa’s. The reason for this is that Anissa’s marrow has a mixture of genetic characteristics from both parents. Neither does brother Airon, 19, have marrow that is compatible with his sister’s. (2) (A) Furthermore, a search (B) for a suitable non-related donor (C) had been fruitless to date, though the hunt (D) continues. In the fall of 2009, Mary turned to her husband with a proposal: “What if we have another child?” In the roll of the genetic dice, the odds were only 1 in 4 that such a child would have the right tissue type. (3) (A) In addition, there (B) was other daunting obstacles (C) which the family (D) encountered. Abe, 44, would have to undergo an operation to reverse a vasectomy done 16 years