Designer baby gets go-ahead

A couple have been given the go-ahead to create a designer baby to save the life of their son.

Fireman Joe Fletcher, 37, and his wife, Julie, are the first parents in the UK to be allowed to begin embryo screening treatment since the rules were changed in July.

'This is what we've been waiting for - it means we can go ahead and get a cure,' said 32-year-old Mrs Fletcher after getting the all-clear from fertility watchdogs. The couple's two-year-old son, Joshua, has Diamond Blackfan anaemia, a potentially fatal blood disorder which can be treated by using stem cells to produce red blood cells in his body.

His parents and brother, from Moira, Co Down, are not close enough matches to provide the stem cells needed.

But IVF technology could be used to create a baby which is. Before July this was allowed only in cases of serious genetic illness.