At age 47, Pam Obadia is trying to conceive her second child. But that's not what makes the Vancouver mother's situation controversial.
Obadia and her husband Mike have an 8-year-old with leukemia. Currently undergoing chemotherapy and unable to find a match that will allow him to get a bone marrow transplant, the boy's prognosis is not promising. So the Obadias are hoping to give birth to another infant and use the stems cells from the newborn's umbilical cord to save their existing child's life.
It's difficult to imagine a more painful, wrenching situation for a parent. I think anyone can understand the impulse to do anything -- anything -- to save that little boy's life. But some people view this approach as something akin to genetic engineering: Creating a child primarily to save the life of another. Personally, I think it sounds a heck of a lot like a Jodi Picoult novel.
The Obadias insist they are eager to raise another child in addition to the health benefits that said baby's arrival may mean for their son. They also are spending $30,000 and traveling to Chicago to pursue invitro fertilization, then screen embryos in the hopes of finding a match.
Since they both know what it means to raise a child and are willing to go to such lengths, I can only hope that means they would happily embrace and raise the baby on his or her own terms. Because the sad fact is this: They could overcome the odds and successfully get pregnant, overcome another set of odds and find matching stem cells for their boy, then get him that transplant they've been desperately seeking. And after all that, they could still lose him in the end.
Photo: The Telegraph
