The Ethical Use of Human Fetal Tissue in Medicine

Abstract

IN the past few years, medical science has made dramatic advances through research that uses tissue from dead human fetuses. At the same time, this research has led to controversy over the ethics of using human fetal tissue, particularly tissue from induced abortions. In the spring of 1988, the Department of Health and Human Services halted all therapeutic research using tissue from fetuses aborted electively—stopping first all research at the National Institutes of Health and then any research by the Public Health Service — until the ethical considerations it involves have been studied further.1 , 2 This report, like the department's moratoriums, . . .