By: Journalist Olivia Kopang (OSU)
Rep. McLemore (SE) presented a bill on the Senate floor Friday afternoon. The bill titled, “Safe Saviors” Act of 2024 aims to provide child welfare services to “savior siblings.”
To those who might be unfamiliar with the term “savior siblings”, this is a sibling who is conceived to provide a stem cell transplant to a sibling who usually has cancer or a fatal disease that requires stem cell transplantation.
It aims to address the welfare of “savior siblings” within the framework of child protection laws. The bill marks a significant step toward ensuring the well-being of children in the state of Oklahoma born through procedures such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis or other forms of assisted reproductive technology, with the intention of saving a sibling’s life.
Although the concept of creating “savior siblings” offers potential medical benefits, it also raises ethical and legal concerns, particularly regarding the welfare and rights of the children born through these methods. Bill SE-003 seeks to provide legal safeguards and support systems for these children to address these concerns.
However, the bill offers a solution to these proposed issues. More specifically, the bill would require The Oklahoma Department of Health and the Oklahoma Medical Board to create an oversight committee “regarding the use of HLA, IVF and PGD for the purpose of savior sibling conception.”
The opinion of the body was overwhelmingly positive, and even those who voted in the negative didn’t have strong opposition to the structure or the message of the bill itself.
Many senators agreed that the bill was long overdue in Oklahoma and was needed to protect the children born to save the lives of their siblings. Sen. Madison Resendiz (OU) expressed her admiration for the bill.
“I would say that there could be a couple of potential problems with it, but since there is no legislation, I think that the senators need to take that into consideration because there needs to be a stepping stone because this is a very important issue,” Sen/ Resendiz (OU) said.
Other senators were shocked at the concept of a “savior sibling” and were glad Rep. Resendiz (OU) decided to bring the issue to the floor. One of these senators was Sen. Smith (OSU).
“The entire body was shocked that this was an issue, that this was a thing; they’re experiencing so much cognitive dissonance about what the concept of a savior sibling even is,” Sen. Smith (OSU) said. “Many of us didn’t know. I am just very glad that somebody brought this up, and I’m glad that it passed.”