The Gift of Life -- or Else

By NANCY GIBBS

Jean-Pierre Bosze is not likely to be alive a year from now if he does not receive a bone-marrow transplant. Diagnosed with leukemia in 1988, the 12- year-old boy from Hoffman Estates, Ill., has searched in vain for a suitable donor. His father Tamas, his mother and other relatives have had their blood tested, but none has the right type. His doctors have consulted the National Marrow Donor Program of 180,000 potential donors, but the odds of unrelated people matching are 1 in 20,000.

The chance of a match between siblings or half siblings, however, is higher, which accounts for the drama unfolding in the Illinois courts. Four years ago, Tamas Bosze had an affair with a woman named Nancy Curran. She gave birth to % twins, Jean-Pierre's half brother and half sister, who are more likely than anyone else to be compatible donors. Last June, Bosze went to court to force Curran to have their twins' blood tested and, if there is a match, to let doctors "harvest their marrow."

Would even the most loving family members want to be forced by the courts to donate a kidney or a retina to an ailing child or sibling? The chemistry of love and courage often inspires one relative to donate organs to another. But to do so is an act of will, born of the impulses of a generous individual -- not the mandate of the law.

Last month an Illinois judge ruled that forcing a donation would violate the twins' right to privacy. The risk is relatively small; doctors withdraw the marrow through a needle from the donor's hipbone. But Curran's lawyers argue that there is always the chance of complications. "I do not want to see my children in pain," says Curran. "My priority in this is my children."

But this week the case will be back in court; the Illinois Supreme Court has ordered the lower court to appoint guardians to represent all three children and determine what would be in their best interest. "Instead of deciding which parent's view will prevail," notes Harvard law professor Alan Stone, "the court is suggesting that the children need their own legal representation."

Bosze's attorneys argue that agreeing to a transplant would benefit not only Jean-Pierre but the twins too, by sparing them the trauma of knowing that their half brother died when they might have been able to save him. Their effort echoes a 1969 Kentucky case in which a court ordered a mentally impaired young man to donate a kidney to his ailing brother. It reasoned that the retarded man would be devastated by his brother's death.

Despite this ruling, few legal experts think Bosze will prevail. "The legal tradition is very strong that you can't invade a child's body to help another," says medical ethicist Daniel Callahan. But he adds that Curran's moral case is far weaker than her legal one. "She is being asked to put her children at comparatively slight risk to save the life of their half brother." Sadly, as Jean-Pierre's condition worsens, the issue may soon be moot.

With reporting by Barbara Dolan/Chicago and Andrea Sachs/New York