Just a year ago, the case of a baby, K.J. Muldon, who suffered from a rare genetic metabolic disease –which can cause irreversible and fatal neurodegeneration– and was cured thanks to personalized gene therapy. A pioneering example of so-called n=1 therapy, that is, a therapy specifically created to treat a specific mutation present in only one patient. This success story was considered one of the great scientific achievements of 2025, and filled many parents with hope for their children affected by very serious rare diseases without treatment.

The race for gene therapy and the desperation of some parents have ended up costing the life of a six-year-old girl in China. The minor, named Mei – a pseudonym to protect the family's privacy – died at Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai in March 2025 due to thrombotic microangiopathy – that is, the formation of deadly microscopic clots – seven days after receiving an injection of a virus at the base of her spine. The parents had opted for this therapy after learning that their daughter had an alteration in the CHD3 gene, which caused her a syndrome compatible with autism and a consequent delay in physical and cognitive development.

In 1998, Clint Hallam, a New Zealander who had amputated his own hand with a chainsaw, became the first man in the world to receive a hand transplant, at a hospital in Lyon, France. The limb belonged to a young motorcyclist who had died in a traffic accident. The operation was an unprecedented medical success, but a tragic human failure. Three years later, after repeated requests, his transplanted hand was removed at a clinic in London. It bothered him; he felt mentally disconnected from it.

One of the images of the pandemic that will remain etched in my memory forever was that of a hotel room in Kiev with dozens of babies lined up like products in a supermarket. It was a veritable stockpile of babies that couldn't be delivered due to the lockdown resulting from the so-called "unintelligible" situation. surrogacy, a euphemism so aseptic, so technical, that it doesn't trouble our consciences. Spanish law prohibits this practice because it is ethically contrary to human dignity, due to the commodification of life and the instrumentalization of women, almost always poor, to satisfy the desires of rich men and women.