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Human Fetal Tissue: Scientific Uses And Ethical Concerns, Carol A. Tauer Ph.D.

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

Human fetal tissue has been used in research for decades, but recent attempts to implant fetal neural tissue as therapy for Parkinson's disease have stimulated discussion of ethical and policy issues. In late 1989 a moratorium on federal support of fetal tissue transplantation research was indefinitely extended, based on the connection between this research and elective abortion. Four abortion-related objections to the use of fetal tissue can be identified: 1. The procedures of abortion and tissue procurement are linked in practice; 2. One who uses fetal tissue is complicit with the abortions which provided the tissue; 3. The prospect of …