U.S. Agency Told to Halt Research Using Fetal Tissue From Abortions

The Reagan Administration has banned all experiments at the National Institutes of Health that use tissue from aborted fetuses, halting federal research in a field that many scientists consider among the most promising in modern medicine.

Interest in the medical uses of fetal tissue has exploded in the last five years, as research in illnesses as diverse as Parkinson’s disease, juvenile diabetes and leukemia has shown that the special composition of fetal tissue holds promise for treatment of those diseases. Thousands of aborted fetuses are used each year.

Research Controversial

From the start, however, the research has been controversial because of the intense national debate over abortion. Administration officials have debated the use of fetal tissue for at least two years.

The decision last week was prompted by a National Institutes of Health proposal to implant fetal tissue into patients with Parkinson’s disease, an experiment that has succeeded in animals and, in a few cases, with humans.

“This proposal raises a number of questions--primarily ethical and legal--that have not been satisfactorily addressed, either within the Public Health Service or within society,” Dr. Robert E. Windom, assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services, wrote to the institutes’ director, James B. Wyngaarden. “I am withholding my approval of the proposed experiment and future experiments” that use fetal tissue.

Must Name Advisory Panel

In the memo, Windom directed Wyngaarden to create an outside advisory committee to examine the ethical, medical and legal implications of using tissue from aborted fetuses. He presented questions for the committee to consider, including whether the use of fetal tissue in research encourages women to have abortions.

“NIH sets the pace, and this will cripple fetal research in the United States,” said Dr. Bernard Liebel, professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and an expert on juvenile diabetes and fetal research. “It is an extraordinarily valuable research tool with immense potential. Depriving research scientists of this material is a great disservice to humanity.”