The politics of transplantation of human fetal tissue

Article Abstract:

Current federal regulations permit the use of tissue from dead fetuses in experimental transplantation, when it is conducted in accordance with state law. Ethical concerns remain, however, and there has been continued political resistance to paying for such research with public funds. Those who oppose use of fetal tissue argue that federal funding of fetal research would institutionalize governmental complicity with the "abortion industry." Some critics note that a woman does not lose or forfeit all interest in an aborted fetus simply by choosing an abortion. The politics of abortion has led us to focus on the tangential question of the tissue's source rather than the central question of its benefits to sick people. The subjects of the proposed transplant research are not the fetuses (which are dead), but the tissue recipients. An important step to take, as a means of improving the regulation of clinical trials of new surgical procedures using fetal-tissue transplantation, would be to confine this research to a few centers of established excellence; it would be at such centers that research would be pursued until the safety and efficacy of such transplantations are demonstrated.

Management, Laws, regulations and rules, Political aspects, United States. National Institutes of Health, Fetal tissues, column, Fetal tissue transplantation

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Birth of a normal girl after in vitro fertilization and preimplantation diagnostic testing for cystic fibrosis

Article Abstract:

Preimplantation testing of embryos conceived in vitro may eliminate the need to terminate a pregnancy in couples with genetic disorders. Traditional prenatal testing does not take place until the the first or second trimester of pregnancy. Thus, some women may have to terminate multiple pregnancies before conceiving a healthy fetus. Three couples in which both partners had the gene for cystic fibrosis donated eggs and sperm for in vitro fertilization. Three days after fertilization, the embryos underwent genetic testing for the cystic fibrosis gene. One couple did not produce an embryo that could be implanted. Each of the other two women was implanted with one embryo that was a carrier of the cystic fibrosis gene and one unaffected embryo. One of the women gave birth to a healthy baby girl who did not have the gene for cystic fibrosis. Testing of this diagnostic technique is in the early stages, but it seems promising, at least for disorders that result from a defect in one gene.

Methods, Innovations, Diagnosis, Cystic fibrosis, Fertilization in vitro, Prenatal diagnosis

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