Use of fetal tissue in research and transplants

It is unclear, however, whether the law actually restricts the right to an abortion or the right to designate a recipient of the fetal tissue. However, this still relies on antiquated science and cell cultures. For the most part, the trajectory of the development of public policy on protection of human subjects in medical research is one of continual expansion, and heightened concern to ensure that vulnerable populations are not disadvantaged or exploited.

It cannot be argued that the fetus is morally neutral in the same way an organ or a piece of tissue is. However, the success of fetal tissue transplants has been meager at best, and ethically-derived alternatives exist and are coming to dominate the field. Some opponents argue that this incentivizes women to chose abortion.

However, most fetal tissue used in transplants comes from induced, not spontaneous, abortions. The first not only justifies the use of the tissue from induced abortion; it also permits the conceiving woman to specify the person who receives the donated tissue.

George and Christopher Tollefsen, Embryo: Antiabortion leaders, lawmakers and all the Republican presidential candidates have used the opportunity to demonize abortion and paint a ghoulish picture of organ harvesting, all in an effort to gin up public disgust and attract public support for themselves and against abortion and Planned Parenthood.

Many pro-choice advocates are increasingly uncomfortable with the number of abortions performed in this country. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare,More recent guidelines for federally funded research exhibit solicitude for living fetuses as research subjects, but not for cadaveric fetuses.

Since abortion done for family planning purposes cannot in any sense be considered good, the use of fetal tissue obtained from abortion is morally tainted.

Are there really alternatives to the use of fetal tissue from elective abortions in transplantation research.

The summary that follows provides an overview of that debate but, unless otherwise noted, pertains to fetal research only. The results were a mixed bagand the procedure was largely abandoned.

Scientists from Florida State, Emory, and Johns Hopkins developed a successful model system to show that the Zika virus can infect and damage some developing brain cells.

When the donation of fetal tissue is described as a gift from the fetus as a donor, only miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies can stand on a moral basis, since these fetuses were only unable, and not unwelcome, to join the human community.

For example, the proof of principle experiment showing that polio virus could be grown in non-nervous tissue culture inused human fetal tissue. Planned Parenthood clinic told official, Washington Post, Nov. New guidelines had to be developed for research using cadaveric fetal organs and tissue.

This law further prohibited research on a fetus from an elective abortion until the commission had reported back to Congress. Such mini-livers can potentially serve as laboratory models for liver function, as bioartificial livers for toxicity testing, and may even be useful for transplantation for liver regeneration.

In addition, the use of fetal liver cells shows promise for treating bone marrow diseases and blood disorders, and fetal pancreatic cells have been shown to help treat diabetes. The ethical use of human fetal tissue in medicine. The mother cannot give morally legitimate consent, since she initiated the termination of the pregnancy.

In addition, hearings were held by Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts regarding the protection of human subjects in research. Critics say positive outcomes cannot justify a practice that is itself immoral.

Congress to ban research on a fetus outside the uterus, if that fetus had a beating heart. Federal law permits and regulates transplantation of fetal tissue from induced abortion, as well as spontaneous abortion and stillbirth. The use of fetal tissue was more directly addressed in by the NIH Human Fetal Tissue Research Transplantation Panel.

New guidelines had to be developed for research using cadaveric fetal organs and tissue. We review the current state of clinical research with fetal tissue transplantation, the legal history of fetal tissue research, the major arguments against the use of fetal tissue for transplantation, and the new postmoratorium ethical dilemmas.

(1) IN GENERAL - The Secretary may conduct or support research on the transplantation of human fetal tissue for therapeutic purposes. (2) SOURCE OF TISSUE - Human fetal tissue may be used in research carried out under paragraph (1) regardless of whether the tissue is obtained pursuant to a spontaneous or induced abortion or pursuant to a stillbirth.

Fetal tissue transplants are actually part of a long-established tradition of using fetal cells in research. For example, the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded. Fetal cell transplants take these dopamine-producing cells from aborted neural tissue and, through a small hole in the skull, introduce them into the affected brain regions of Parkinson’s patients.

The moratorium was lifted in and the use of fetal tissue in the research community flourished untilwhen the Reagan administration put a moratorium on all federal funding of fetal tissue transplant research.

A bipartisan ethics commission was again set up to .

Use of fetal tissue in research and transplants