For The Sake of Some Umbilical Cells, an Anemic Child Gains Two Sisters

When Lea Ann and Brad Curry of Lanesville, Ind., first lifted the hands of tiny daughter Natalie, their hearts clutched. The baby's left thumb was missing, and her right thumb was useless. The radius bone was missing from the infant's left arm. The doctors' diagnosis was devastating: Fanconi's anemia. Unless Natalie received a new immune system from transplanted stem cells, the units from which all blood cells derive, she faced a short life of severe anemia and possible retardation.

The Currys didn't waste time searching for bone-marrow donors outside the family. Instead, Lea Ann got pregnant. When that fetus miscarried, Lea Ann waited a month, then got pregnant again. The couple gained a healthy baby, Audrey, but she was an unsuitable donor. Within 12 weeks, Lea Ann was again pregnant, this time with Emily, whose tissue proved compatible. So doctors collected and stored the blood from Emily's umbilical cord -- blood rich in stem cells. Twenty months after Emily's birth, the cord blood was transplanted into her sister, then 4.

To those who say it is wrong to produce one life to rescue another, Lea Ann responds, "Who are they to judge?" Her own answer is that Natalie, center, now 6, is healthy, as are her sisters.