Bible Teaching and Saviour Siblings
All of the 'sanctity of life' and 'love' quotes that relate to IVF and PGD still apply here, There is a sanctity of life issue with PGD because embryos are discarded, and when you discard an embryo that isn't a donor match, you are discarding a healthy embryo. The love quotes relate to the existing sick child, as there may be not other way to find a cure.
However, there is another issue - is it reasonable to create a child and use it to save the life of another child?
There are many examples in the Bible of people who were born with a specific purpose in mind:
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD
Jeremiah 29:11
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do
Ephesians 2:1
Some would use these quotes to argue that God has a plan for each of the embryos, and it is wrong to discard them. However, many Christians don't see embryos as human beings, and this is consistent with other Biblical passages. Other Christians would accept the idea that God's plan may be for a child to act as a saviour sibling, particulalry if this was only at a limited cost to the new child. Christianity teaches that we should love others as we love ourselves, and Jesus' example shows that God planned Jesus' death to save others - Jesus himself asked for his cup of suffering to be taken from him, but "not my will, but yours" he prayed.
There are many confusing issues raised by the whole process. It may be helpful to narrow this down. Some people object to all cases of IVF because of what happens to spare embryos. Others are unhappy with using PGD to screen for healthy embryos. If 'Saviour Siblings' are a greater concern, we need to look at other issues. The film 'My Sister's Keeper' shows that a saviour sibling may face many painful surgeries and procedures in trying to help a sick brother or sister, but these problems would be faced even if the donor sibling was an older brother or sister who happened to be a donor match.
The real issue, then, the issue that makes creating a 'saviour sibling' different from other, less contantious, cases, is the idea of creating a child for the purpose of saving an existing child's life, and this is quite possible to do without any of the technology just by trying for a child the 'natural' way.
A biblical response will be to bring together 'sanctity of life' and 'love' quotes to show that every child must be created in love, and valued completely in and of themselves, as children of God for whom he has a plan. It is possible, following Jesus' loving example and in light of his teaching, to see part of a child's future as that of a donor. However, this must never result in losing sight of the donor child's unique value and purpose.
