'Designer baby' miscarriage blow

The Hashmis will continue trying for a baby

A couple given the go-ahead to try for a baby selected to help their sick son have suffered the heartbreak of a miscarriage, it has been reported.

Shahana Hashmi lost the baby she hoped would supply her existing son Zain, with a cure for his rare blood illness.

Zain has beta thalassaemia, and needs a bone marrow transplant, and the Appeal Court gave permission for an IVF embryo to be chosen to match him exactly.

Shahana told a Leeds radio station that she was "absolutely gutted".

Cells from the umbilical cord of the new baby would be used to provide the materials for the transplant treatment for four-year-old Zain.

The UK's fertility watchdog, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), approved this, but an ethical campaign group went to the High Court earlier in an attempt to block it.

They argued that it was not in the best interests of the new child to be conceived to supply its brother with a treatment, no matter how loved the new baby would be.

It claimed that the HFEA had no right to licence such treatments.

Ban overturned

A High Court judge banned the "embryo selection" from taking place on these grounds, but this was overturned on appeal.

We will get there, I know we will Shahana Hashmi

The need to select suitable embryos means that a cycle of treatment may produce none suitable for implantation, making it harder to get pregnant.

Beta thalassaemia means that the body cannot regulate the amount of iron in the blood. The only treatments are either regular blood transfusions, or a bone marrow transplant from a matching donor.

In the radio interview, Shahana said that she would continue to attempt IVF.

She said: "Never mind, it wasn't meant to be.

"I'm like a rubber ball though, I just keep bouncing back up.

"We can keep going for the baby again. We will get there, I know we will."