The Match: “Savior Siblings” and One Family’s Battle to Heal their Daughter
The Match: “Liberator Siblings” and One Family’s Battle to Heal their Daughter Books
- ISBN13: 9780807072868
- Shape up: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
On her first day on earth, laboring to breathe below an oxygen tent, Katie Trebing underwent a blood transfusion that would become the first of an expected lifetime of them. Diagnosed with a rare form of anemia that prevents bone marrow from producing red blood cells, Katie would require a transfusion every month. Without it, she would die. But even with a steady supply of red blood cells from donors, her prognosis was not encouraging. Eventually, doctors warned, iron from repeated transfusions would accumulate in her heart and liver, potentially destroying her organs by the time she reached forty. Faced with their daughter’s devastating prognosis, Stacy and Steve Trebing made the trying choice to pursue the only known cure for Diamond Blackfan anemia: a bone marrow transplant from a genetic match. Using preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and in vitro fertilization, they would make a “liberator sibling” for Katie, a complex administer rife with setbacks and pitfalls. Only then may possibly she undergo the perilous course of action that might save her life. In The Match, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Beth Whitehouse tells the Trebing family’s tale, from the onset of Katie’s troubling health complications to the birth of her new brother and the culmination of her bone-marrow transplant. Whitehouse follows the Trebings each step of the way as they make the nail-biting decisions to make a genetically matched sibling and proceed with the risky transplant that may possibly kill Katie rather than save her. With the family’s dramatic and emotional tale as an entry top, Whitehouse delves head-on into the murky bioethics surrounding PGD: Is it ethical to make a life for the purpose of saving another? Who will protect the medical interests of the “liberator sibling” made by scientific manipulation? And who will object if the child is later called upon to donate, say, an organ? Whitehouse questions these questions and many others, seeking answers from doctors and ethicists who deal with such matters daily. She explores the controversial use already made of PGD to select gender and the future possibility to choose traits such as eye color and even intelligence. The Match is a timely and provocative look at urgent issues that can only become more complex and pressing as genetic and reproductive technologies advance.
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Beth Whitehouse has written an outstanding book about the obstacles that the Trebing Family overcame on the long journey they took down a very rocky road to help their daughter, Katie, conquer Diamond Blackfan Anemia. Having met the Trebing Family, it is very simple to see how Beth Whitehouse was charmed by this delightful and loving family. This very right and right account of their trials and tribulations is a MUST read for all those who wish to see how perseverance and faith paid off!! We both highly urge “THE MATCH.” This book, and it’s author, are headed for fame and many awards, and our prayers will everlastingly be with this family.
Submitted by Authors, Sheila and Letty Sustrin
Rating: 5 / 5
A wrenching tale of like, science and luck. If you’ve ever known a child with an illness, this book will grab you by your soul.
I’m a nationally known expert in reproductive sciences as well as the father of a disabled child. This book must be read.
Rating: 5 / 5
When the 5-day run that preceded this book ran in Newsday, I couldn’t wait for the paper to come each day to find out what happened to this family, and especially to Katie. When I learned of the book, I had to read it to find out how the Trebings were now; to make sure all was well.
The book exceeded my expectations. Even though I knew the general tale (from the Newsday run), I couldn’t place it down. Whitehouse writes with such warmth and detail that you feel like you are sitting at the kitchen table or nearly Katie’s sickbay bed with this family, weighing in on what the next choice should be.
Even as the book has a honest quantity of medical in rank, you don’t have to be a physician to know what’s going on. For me, it was more about the tale of this family’s trying decisions and the roller coaster ride they took for the sake of saving their daughter. You can tell they are real people; a family you may possibly see yourself being friends with. That’s part of what sucked me in. Loved it.
Rating: 5 / 5
In “The Match: “Liberator Siblings” and One Family’s Battle to Heal their Daughter,” reporter Beth Whitehouse recounts the agonizing but ultimately triumphant tale that follows a family’s discovery that their newborn daughter had a disease that may possibly have eventually killed her.
That disease, Diamond Blackfan anemia, lonely would have been trying enough to handle. But Stacy and Steve Trebing eventually learned of a possible cure for Katie’s illness, one that required serious soul searching, with longterm ramifications for their family.
They resolute to seek a bone marrow transplant from a sibling, one who hadn’t even been conceived yet. So started their journey through the world of genetic diagnosis and in vitro fertilization, and their own struggle to cope with the myriad ethical and moral issues brought about by that choice. The potential for failure was a constant presence as they took each step on a long and complex course of treatment.
Not the least of the many issues was how to deal with the moral issues of having a child to save another. What would the second child reckon of his own value? What if the transplant ultimately failed? The urge to quietly wonder what we’d do in similar circumstances is a constant companion as each setback or triumph occurs.
The Trebings seem like just fixed people forced to face incredibly complicated issues fraught with all kinds of emotional questions. That they succeeded is remarkable, as is the fact that they managed to remain so united below such fantastic pressure.
Whitehouse makes even the most run of the mill developments and scenes compelling because they’re part of the greater drama of the overall tale. Her writing seems to place the reader aptly on the scene.
Anyone who has confronted life-and-death medical issues will recognize and identify with some of the internal debates the Trebings face. But few have had to face the multiple longterm choices forced on the Trebings.
Once confronted, they stood up with courage and grace. Their decisions, from the outside, may provoke some discomfort but then, opportunely, they aren’t choices most of us will ever have to face.
Rating: 5 / 5