Le Figaro: The first "drug baby" was born French

These children are conceived in the hope of a cure of their elders suffering from a rare disease. An acceptable practice since 2004.

It's a boy, and one imagines his parents doubly happy. The small-Umut Talha, born January 26 Antoine Beclere hospital in Clamart, is not only an infant in "good health", weighing 3.650 kg at birth. His arrival in the world should also allow to treat one of his older siblings suffering from a serious illness, officials said professors René Frydman and Arnold Munnich.

As the bioethics law authorizes in France since 2004, parents of Umut-Talha ("our hope" in Turkish), whose previous children are suffering from a blood disease, beta-thalassemia, have decided to design a "drug baby" or "double hope baby." For this, they have resorted to IVF , with a dual diagnosis for preimplantation embryo retain a healthy, genetically compatible with their sick children.

The doctors were able to ensure that the unborn child would not have the same disease as his elders and would be a match with the child or children to care. At birth, the umbilical cord connecting Umut-Talha to his mother, rich in stem cells, was collected. These stem cells that give rise to blood cells, will be retained for a subsequent transplant to her brother or sister.

This practice, first in France, is very rare in the world. It is subject in France to the agreement of the agency of biomedicine , which issues licenses on a case by case basis.

Via Le Figaro: Le premier 'bebe medicament" francais est ne