Funding Ban on Fetal Tissue Studies Extended

Calling it a “moral issue,” a top federal health official said today he intends to extend indefinitely the current ban on federal funding for research using fetal tissue from induced abortions.

James O. Mason, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, said he has the authority to make a decision on the ban and “the moratorium should be continued indefinitely.” Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan unexpectedly declined Tuesday to make the decision himself.

Permitting federal funding for such research, Mason said, “would be unacceptable federal policy.”

Conservative supporters of the Bush Administration had promised a firestorm of protest if the Administration lifted the ban.

Mason’s predecessor as assistant secretary for health, Robert Windom, last year forbade use of government funds to finance such research and established a special advisory committee on whether it should continue.

Later last year, the committee recommended the ban be lifted.

Mason told reporters he will write a letter to the National Institutes of Health within 10 days informing it of his decision.

“This is a moral issue,” he said. “I’m concerned that in sponsoring fetal tissue transplantation there will be a clear perception that the government is encouraging or promoting abortion.”

Many scientists believe Parkinson’s disease and other conditions could be treated by transplanting fetal tissue into patients.

Allowing federal funding for fetal tissue transplants from induced abortions would create a demand for aborted fetuses, which would increase the number of abortions, Mason said.