Italian 'saviour siblings' spark calls for minister's resignation

Calls have been made for the resignation of Italian Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia, the man behind the country's restrictive fertility laws. The call comes after news that a five year old boy suffering from Cooley's anaemia had been cured by 'adult' stem cells taken from the umbilical cord of his newborn twin brothers.

The cord blood stem cell transplant took place at the San Matteo University Hospital in Pavia, Italy. Professor Francesco Locatelli and his team, who performed the operation, announced the results at a press conference last week. Locatelli, who intends to publish a peer-reviewed study after a longer-term follow up of the boy, said that 'one month after the transplant, the child is healthy and shows no sign of graft versus host disease'.

Sirchia, who called the press conference about the boy, called the achievement 'historic', adding that 'until now, the only clinically relevant results have been obtained with adult stem cells'. He added: 'This transplant was historical because for the first time it opens the way to the treatment of the adult'. However, it later transpired that the twins had been born following the use of IVF procedures with PGD (pre-implantation genetic diagnosis). PGD was used to ensure that the twins would be born as matched tissue/cell donors for their sick brother, after cells taken from the umbilical cord of a naturally conceived younger sibling had proved to be incompatible. So the couple travelled to Turkey for the PGD procedure, which has been banned in Italy since the introduction of the new law, said to be the most restrictive in Europe. Mr Sirchia said that he was unaware that the twins were 'designer babies' because the family had asked for privacy.

Such seeming contradictions, coupled with other issues that have arisen since the passage of the new law, have spurred critics of the fertility laws to call for Sirchia's resignation. Opponents of the law are also stepping up their campaign to overturn the legislation by a referendum, which may take place next summer.

Meanwhile, the Italian Green Party has accused Sirchia of a 'conflict of interest' in relation to his decision to spend 400,000 Euros to build a centre where Italy's 31,000 'orphan' embryos can be conserved. The centre would be housed at a Milan hospital where he used to work.