The House of Lords has today ruled that the creation of designer babies to treat brothers and sisters with genetic disorders is lawful, in a landmark judgement which could pave the way for a new generation of 'saviour siblings'.

The Law Lords unanimously upheld a 2003 High Court judgement which granted a couple from Leeds the right to use controversial fertility treatment to select an embryo which could have helped to save their son's life.

Zain Hashmi, six, was born with a rare and potentially fatal genetic blood disorder, beta-thalassaemia major, the treatment for which requires a high daily intake of drugs and monthly blood transfusions.

Two years ago Raj and Shahana Hashmi, his parents, were granted the right to have the embryo of their next baby, produced using in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment, screened to ensure its blood-type was compatible with Zain's.

They hoped that once the baby was born, its tissue could be used in a bone marrow transplant.

Mrs Hashmi has since had a number of miscarriages and is now 40. The case continued in the courts, nonetheless, because the campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CRE) - which opposes the selection of embryos on the grounds that the unselected embryos are not given a chance of life - pressed for the High Court judgement to be overturned, claiming that the creation of designer babies was against the law.

Josephine Quintavalle, who heads the group, argued that the screening of embryos had broader implications and could be used in future to select children with particular traits, such as sex, appearance and intelligence.

Today, dismissing the challenge, the law lords held that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) - the body set up under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 which issues licences to create or keep embryos - had done nothing illegal in giving the go-ahead for the tissue-typing.

Lord Hoffman, who gave one of the main judgments today, said : "There has never been any suggestion that the authority acted unreasonably in granting a licence. The case has always been that it had no power to do so. In my opinion it did, and I would therefore dismiss the appeal."

The argument before the law lords focused on the scope of the authority's powers to decide the nature of and the purposes for which tests may be performed on embryos, in the process of providing IVF treatment.

The Lords were also be called on to consider whether the testing of genetic material extracted from a cell taken from an embryo, in the eyes of the law, constitutes "use" of an embryo and therefore requires the testing to be licensed.

Lord Hoffman, giving the lead judgment, said that Mrs Hashmi had twice conceived naturally in the hope of giving birth to a child whose umbilical blood could provide stem cells for Zain.

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