CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN FRANCISCO : Fetal Transplants Flourish in France

Transplants from aborted fetuses to other fetuses still in the womb may have saved three children, French researchers reported at the 13th International Congress of the Transplantation Society. Dr. Jean-Louis Touraine said the three fetuses that received fetal cells had inherited liver diseases that could have killed them. He and his medical team transferred liver cells from aborted fetuses into the live fetuses. Two of the live fetuses suffered from immune deficiency diseases that are hard to treat because patients cannot resist infection, yet mount immune defenses against organ transplants meant to help them. The third fetus suffered from thalassemia major, a liver disease that does not affect immune responses. The first of the three is now a “perfectly healthy” 2-year-old child, Touraine said. The second, a 1-year-old girl, is still receiving treatment but apparently doing well. Touraine said it is too early to tell whether the third child, born in March, will recover from her thalassemia. Touraine said 202 children have received transplants from aborted fetuses in France over the last 16 years.