{"id":49975,"date":"2026-03-26T10:08:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=49975"},"modified":"2026-03-26T10:08:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:08:41","slug":"the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html","title":{"rendered":"The Boozer Twins Are Basketball Stars. They\u2019re Also a Moral Dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
@cameronboozer \/ Instagram | Inset: SportsCenter NEXT \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cameron and Cayden Boozer are rising basketball stars playing for Duke University. But long before either of them had even looked at a basketball, the twins already had the distinction of doing something few people have the opportunity to do: saving an older sibling\u2019s life. The boys\u2019 brother, Carmani Boozer, was born with sickle cell disease<\/a>, a diagnosis that limits quality of life through higher risk of infection, fatigue, and chronic pain. The typical lifespan of a person with sickle cell disease is about 30 years less than average, with about 95% reaching adulthood.<\/p>\n

Carmani\u2019s best chance at a normal life was through a bone marrow transplant. The best type of donation in this situation is stem cells gathered from the umbilical cord of a sibling. However, both of Carmani\u2019s parents, CeCe and Carlos Boozer, a former NBA star, were carriers of the sickle cell trait, meaning that any child they had naturally had a higher risk of being born with the disease as well. So, the parents turned to invitro fertilization (IVF). 34 eggs were harvested from CeCe, with 10 going on to become fertilized, sickle cell-free embryos. Of the 10, only two were a perfect match for Carmani. Thus, Cameron and Cayden were born, with stem cells from their umbilical cords being harvested soon after their birth. After a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy, Carmani is now disease-free and an athlete as well.<\/p>\n

But while some may see Cameron and Cayden as medical miracles, others view the circumstances of their birth as a moral dilemma. The boys\u2019 mother, CeCe, admitted her own struggles in the ethics of having the twins in the documentary, \u201cBlood Brothers<\/a>.\u201d \u201cYou feel like you\u2019re having a baby for the wrong reason. I just felt guilty because it was more out of love for Carmani. It wasn\u2019t out of love for them,\u201d she admitted. Carlos also had struggles. \u201cThere was times where I felt we did the right thing and there was times I felt like we didn\u2019t do the right thing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was, we need to have a baby so that we could cure Carmani. That\u2019s not how we wanted to have it, but that\u2019s what ended up going down.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the boys, they are good-humored about the circumstances of their birth. \u201cI mean, they were only born because I was sick, pretty much. But they saved my life. That\u2019s what their comeback is,\u201d Carmani joked in an interview<\/a>. \u201cCarmani was born with sickle cell, and they found out that he needed to have the surgery, the bone marrow transplant. The best option was to obviously have us, to have the transplant,\u201d Cayden told ESPN<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For pro-lifers, IVF has become a sticking point of what a commitment to life beginning at conception really means. While many Christians with fertility struggles have turned to IVF to start a family, others have accused the process of treating children like a commodity. In the Boozers\u2019 case, 10 embryos were created. Only 2 were used. That means 8 embryos, fitting the definition of conceived<\/em>, were \u201cdiscarded.\u201d \u201cThe heavy weight to bear here is the fact that science affirms life begins at conception, so we can say with certainty that while a life now has the opportunity to be saved, lives were devalued and discarded at the same time,\u201d wrote Christian contributor Jon Root for Outkick<\/em><\/a>. \u201cThrough this process of IVF, children are treated as a commodity. While fighting to save their son\u2019s life, an admirable, innate desire of any parent faced with such circumstances, they treated the children created through IVF, as expendable, spare parts, and raw material for another’s survival,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Reactions on social media were mixed. \u201cThis sounds like an amazing thing they were able to do. They were able to save their actual human child and get two more wonderful kids. The embryos were just science (not human life). We are lucky we live in a world where this is possible through science,\u201d wrote one user<\/a>. Another, however, struggled with the implications. \u201cI saw this last Sunday morning I totally understand why the Boozers made the decision they made,\u201d wrote the user<\/a>. \u201cWhat’s wild is Camari is able to tell his brothers that he is the reason why they were born. Lucky for them they weren’t the other 32.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cameron and Cayden Boozer are rising basketball stars playing for Duke University. But long before either of them had even looked at a basketball, the twins already had the distinction of doing something few people have the opportunity to do: saving an older sibling\u2019s life. The boys\u2019 brother, Carmani Boozer, was born with sickle cell…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":49978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Boozer Twins Are Basketball Stars. They\u2019re Also a Moral Dilemma<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Boozer twins helped save their brother\u2019s life\u2014but their IVF story is sparking debate about faith, life, and ethics.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Boozer Twins Are Basketball Stars. They\u2019re Also a Moral Dilemma\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Boozer twins helped save their brother\u2019s life\u2014but their IVF story is sparking debate about faith, life, and ethics.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-26T14:08:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/03\/Boozer-Twins_credit-cameronboozer-Instagram-Inset-SportsCenter-NEXT-YouTube.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Boozer Twins Are Basketball Stars. They\u2019re Also a Moral Dilemma","description":"Boozer twins helped save their brother\u2019s life\u2014but their IVF story is sparking debate about faith, life, and ethics.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Boozer Twins Are Basketball Stars. They\u2019re Also a Moral Dilemma","og_description":"Boozer twins helped save their brother\u2019s life\u2014but their IVF story is sparking debate about faith, life, and ethics.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2026-03-26T14:08:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/03\/Boozer-Twins_credit-cameronboozer-Instagram-Inset-SportsCenter-NEXT-YouTube.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html","name":"The Boozer Twins Are Basketball Stars. They\u2019re Also a Moral Dilemma","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/03\/Boozer-Twins_credit-cameronboozer-Instagram-Inset-SportsCenter-NEXT-YouTube.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-26T14:08:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-26T14:08:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"Boozer twins helped save their brother\u2019s life\u2014but their IVF story is sparking debate about faith, life, and ethics.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/03\/Boozer-Twins_credit-cameronboozer-Instagram-Inset-SportsCenter-NEXT-YouTube.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2026\/03\/Boozer-Twins_credit-cameronboozer-Instagram-Inset-SportsCenter-NEXT-YouTube.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"@cameronboozer \/ Instagram | Inset: SportsCenter NEXT \/ YouTube"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/03\/the-boozer-twins-are-basketball-stars-theyre-also-a-moral-dilemma.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Boozer Twins Are Basketball Stars. They\u2019re Also a Moral Dilemma"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","caption":"Brandy Grenier"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49981,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49975\/revisions\/49981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}