A relational approach to saviour siblings? (Journal of Medical Ethics)

This issue of Journal of Medical Ethics features an `Author meets critics` discussion of Michelle Taylor-Sands` recent book Saviour Siblings.1 In Saviour Siblings, Taylor-Sands departs from standard approaches to the ethics of selective reproduction that (she argues) usually focus on ‘the individual interests of the child to be born’.2 Instead she proposes ‘a new relational model for selective reproduction based on a broad conception of the welfare of the child that includes both individual and family interests’.2 Rather than thinking that the individual interests of the new child are ultimately what (or all that) matter in ethical decision making about selective reproduction, and rather than pitting the individual interests of a potential new child against the interests of other family members, on her approach, ‘the welfare of the child to be born is inextricably linked with the welfare of his/her family’.