Bowen Reserves Judgment on Fetal Tissue Use

The Reagan Administration’s top health official said today that he refuses to take a position on a proposed White House ban on using intentionally aborted fetal tissue for medical treatment until a National Institutes of Health advisory committee has completed its review of the issue.

Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen told reporters that while he remains personally opposed to abortion, “there are some good pros and some good cons” about using aborted fetal tissue for experimental treatment for Parkinson’s and other diseases.

He said that “a task force of the best minds going” was studying the issue at a three-day institutes meeting and that he had no intention of taking a position until the review is completed, probably not for several weeks.

Bowen said he could not predict whether the issue will be resolved during the last few months of the Reagan Administration, even though a White House official, Gary Bauer, is pushing for quick implementation of an outright ban.

‘Life-Saving’ Resource

“Inasmuch as abortions are legal, being unable to utilize the tissue . . . would result in the waste of a resource that is live-saving and curing for several diseases,” Bowen said at a breakfast meeting with reporters. He spoke at about the same time the institutes’ panel he referred to was opening a second day of hearings to focus on moral and ethical issues.

Bowen said it was his judgment that “we can’t in a good common sense way come up with an answer until we hear” from the advisory panel.

“If I had Parkinson’s I think I would want some of those (transplanted) cells,” said Bowen, emphasizing that such a personal observation does not eliminate the broader ethical questions.