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.This report by the American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs and Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs reviews the data on fetal tissue transplantation in animals and in specific clinical disorders such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease, surveys the legal and ethical issues surrounding fetal tissue transplants, and provides ethical guidelines for the use of fetal tissue for transplantation. The report concludes that further research is necessary to determine the value of fetal tissue transplantation, and that ethical guidelines should separate as much as possible a woman's decision to abort from her decision to donate fetal tissue for transplantation.