The Black Box
The Saviour Sibling Investigation
The UK licenses ‘saviour siblings’ under a legal duty to protect child welfare. Yet the regulator tracks no long-term outcomes and publishes no complete success rates. This investigation examines a system operating with wide discretion and no memory.
How UK Saviour Sibling Policy Was Forged by Contradiction
In 2002, the UK’s fertility regulator refused one family a ‘saviour sibling’, setting a firm ethical principle. Two years later, it quietly reversed that principle for a near-identical case, creating the inconsistent foundation of today’s law.
How the HFEA Licenses ‘Saviour Sibling’ Cases
A small committee decides if families may try to create a ‘saviour sibling’. The law says child welfare comes first. The standards are unpublished. We open the black box and test whether a humane system can also be a transparent one.
The Missing Outcome Data for UK’s Saviour Siblings
For two decades, the UK's fertility regulator has approved 'saviour sibling' procedures without collecting any long-term data on the children's well-being or the treatment's true success rate. Our investigation reveals an evidence void at the system's core.