Medical applications of fetal tissue transplantation. Council on Scientific Affairs and Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs.

Abstract

Fetal tissue transplantation has been attempted for a limited number of clinical disorders, including Parkinson's disease, diabetes, immunodeficiency disorders, and several metabolic disorders. Fetal tissue has intrinsic properties--ability to differentiate into multiple cell types, growth and proliferative ability, growth factor production, and reduced antigenicity--that make it attractive for transplantation research. At this time the results from fetal tissue grafts for Parkinson's disease and diabetes have not demonstrated significant long-term clinical benefit to patients with these disorders. Further research will be necessary to determine the potential value of fetal tissue transplantation. For these clinical investigations to proceed, specific ethical guidelines are needed to ensure that fetal tissue derived from elective abortions is used in a morally acceptable manner. These guidelines should separate, to the greatest extent possible, the decision by a woman to have an abortion from her consent to donate the postmortem tissue for transplantation purposes. Such ethical guidelines are offered in this report.