Three years ago, George and Melanie never thought they would be in
front of a jury of their peers. The story begins almost five
years ago now. George and Melanie were anxiously awaiting their
first child, Gabriel. Gabe was born in the heat of the summer on
July 29th. The actual delivery went smoothly and George, Melanie
and Gabe were home a few days later. Gabe's first birthday came
and went with a happy celebration. Soon after that birthday,
Melanie took Gabe to the emergency room because Gabe had gone into a
seizure. Among the battery of tests that were performed on Gabe
that evening, a blood test was done. The diagnosis was grave, acute
myeloid
leukemia (click
for more info on AML). This disease is a quick acting cancer of
the blood and bone marrow. The following year would be spent in
and out of hospitals and specialty clinics trying to gain control over
the progression of the cancer. Upon finding little hope in
conventional treatments for Gabe's disease, George and Melanie
frantically began searching for other possible treatments.
Searching on the Internet, George found a researcher working under
private funding using stem cell replacement therapy as a treatment for
childhood cancers. George discussed this possibility with Melanie
and having exhausted all other treatment options, they decided to call
the researcher.
Dr. Childs was very sympathetic towards George and Melanie. He
said that contacting him may be the smartest thing that George and
Melanie could have done. He was working on a new procedure that
used bone marrow cells from the child and genetically engineered them
to produce normal white blood cells. This could be attempted with
Gabe. Unfortunately, this procedure was not successful. Due
to the advanced progression of Gabe's cancer, bone marrow cells could
not be engineered correctly.
Dr. Childs suggested a more controversial way of obtaining stem cells
that may hold the key to saving Gabe's life. George and Melanie
were willing to try anything to save Gabe, their first and only
child. Dr. Childs suggested that the best way to get stem cells
now was to obtain some stem cells from Gabe that could then be reverted
back to a zygote. In other words, they would have to agree to let
Dr. Childs clone Gabe. Although George and Melanie were
intelligent people, they were desperate. They agreed and so the
procedure was begun. Active stem cells were taken from Gabe and
Dr. Childs attempted to revert them back to an embryonic form.
George and Melanie were excited and began to share the news with their
friends and families. The local news picked up on the story
almost immediately and it was only a week later when the story went
national. George and Melanie found themselves in the middle of a
media frenzie. Reporters were calling eight to ten times a day
wanting interviews. George and Melanie began to feel the heat of
the news media and the rumors began of a federal investigation into Dr.
Childs research facility. George and Melanie quickly sought out a
lawyer. There was indeed a federal investigation into the
research of Dr. Childs. By the time the investigation was
underway, Dr. Childs had disappeared. His lab and office space
were empty and there was no indication that he would return.
George and Melanie's hopes for a cure for Gabe were gone. Gabe
survived just one month after Dr. Childs disappeared.
George and Melanie were now under investigation as well. Human
cloning is illegal and they were now the first individuals to be on
trial for attempted human cloning. Although George and Melanie
were under dire straights and it was argued in court that they were not
of sound mind, it is up to the jury to decide if they deserve
punishment for their role in the attempt to clone Gabriel. George
and Melanie are now facing $250,000 in fines as well as 10 years each
in jail. It is up to the jury to decide their fate.
