Well, where do I start describing yesterday at the Science Festival? It was one of the most enlightening, thought provoking, challenging days of my life! You’d be forgiven for thinking that’s an exaggeration but reserve judgement until the end of this article then let me know.

First off was a discussion on ‘Saviour Siblings’ featuring Dr Ian Frayling who took us through the science behind the concept – how IVF can be used to produce a child who is a suitable donor for their ill sibling. Next up was Dr Simon Fishel who was part of the team that oversaw the first successful treatment involving a saviour sibling last year.

Finally Professor Lord Robert Winston opened the discussion with some precautionary words, reminding us that while this technology is wonderful in that it can save lives, there is still much we don’t know. For example, the way manipulating embryos in this way could have as yet unseen effects on children further down the line. He also pointed out that the method used to ensure that the new child is free of disease and a perfect tissue match for their sibling is flawed. PCR (a method of amplifying DNA to check for mutations) on a single cell, as used here, is not perfect and can often lead to misdiagnosis. Not to mention the psychological risk to a child who has been created as “spare parts”.

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Dear All,

Today I was struck by the ethical and moral issues raised in the talk ‘Vegetative state’ where Adrian Owen talked about his latest research.

New research has been carried out using MRI scanners on patients who had been clinically diagnosed as being in a ‘vegetative state’. The MRI scanners can show which parts of the brain are active. A ‘vegetative state’ is defined as wakefulness without awareness. A person in a vegetative state may therefore have their eyes open but do not know about the environment around them. They are unable to follow instructions such as ‘Please raise your hand now’.

It has now been shown that some people who appear to be in this state are aware. In an MRI scanner the patient is asked to think of ‘tennis’ or ‘moving between rooms in their house’. The active parts of the brain are very different when thinking about these two things and the people in an apparently ‘vegetative state’ could switch between them when asked showing them to be aware. They then moved to asking yes and no questions with ‘tennis’ for yes and ‘moving through rooms of the house’ for no.

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