Universities using aborted
fetuses
"Even if abortion is
deeply controversial, that is not automatically a sufficient
reason to rule out public funds for fetal remains
experimentation, provided there is proper consent." ~ Robert
Audi |
The University of North Carolina is
just one in a growing list of public universities exploring new,
controversial boundaries within the medical field, which could cause
some taxpayers to question how their tax money is being
used.
Here in North Carolina, at the University of
North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the possibility of controversy
surrounding aborted fetus-tissue research has limited the
information made available to the public. There is reportedly a
program to develop an artificial liver that is using, in part,
fetal-tissue.
However, researchers declined to be interviewed
because they were concerned about possible controversy.
But
not all schools have been able to maintain anonymity. At the
University of Nebraska Medical Center, the brain cells of aborted
fetuses being used in the study of Alzheimer's disease by
researchers was reported in a local newspaper.
The studies
were federally funded to use fetal tissue. In 1993, President
Clinton ended the national ban on research using fetal tissue. The
studies were supported by grants of more than $1 million per year
from the National Institutes of Health.
"The research
uses questionable medical ethics," said Richard Duncan, an NU law
professor.
"Nebraska is traditionally anti-abortion, so
the University of Nebraska's use of taxpayers' money to fund this
research is inconsiderate," Duncan said.
"Even though
the use of the fetus' tissue could benefit others medically, it is
unwise for any medical school to conduct this research, especially
when it is federally funded," Duncan continued.
Robert
Audi, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor of philosophy, said
federal funds for research on fetuses shouldn't be ruled out just
because abortion is involved.
"I would say even if
abortion is deeply controversial, that is not automatically a
sufficient reason to rule out public funds for fetal remains
experimentation, provided there is proper consent," Audi
said.
Robert R. Blank, chairman of Metro Right to Life,
an anti-abortion group, said it was "abhorrent and repulsive" that
the Medical Center would use tax dollars for experiments using
aborted babies.
Medical Center Vice Chancellor Dr.
William O. Berndt told the World-Herald the research has been
underway for several years.
Berndt said he knows
fetal-tissue research is controversial, but it could improve the
lives of many people. History has shown important scientific work
has always been controversial, Berndt said.
"We are
trying to understand the fundamental biology of human brain cells,"
Berndt said in the World-Herald story.
The research
could help determine what goes wrong in the brain in patients with
disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. It may lead to new
treatments.
Berndt declined to reveal the identity of
the researchers at the Medical Center because of concerns about
adverse public reaction.
Before the fetuses are used
for research, women must agree to participate and sign a release
form.
Audi said the Med Center's research raised
ethical questions including whether people can give consent for
experimental use of any human body that is not their
own.
Audi said that reasoning depends on whether a
fetus is considered a human body. He also questioned the father's
consent rights.
"I would say that it is reasonable to
think that a woman may give appropriate consent if the body is that
of a fetus she has carried and is genetically
hers."
The Medical Center does not perform elective
abortions themselves, Berndt said.
However, in the wake of a
strong public backlash, university and Medical Center officials
announced that whenever possible fetal cells would be obtained from
alternative sources, such as spontaneous abortions like miscarriages
and ectopic pregnancies.
They also announced the formation of
an outside advisory committee and changes in the review of such
research.
From now on, reviews will be done by the full
institutional review board that looks at research involving humans.
The board includes community representatives as well as doctors,
faculty members and ethicists.
Three NU Medical Center
administrators who make up the executive committee of the review
board had done the reviews in the past.
The National
Institutes of Health awarded 288 grants during 1998 and 1999 for
research involving human fetal tissue, said Anne Thomas, director of
communications for the institutes.
Thomas said she did not
know the total number of institutions involved. Some received more
than one grant.
Dr. Belinda Seto, a deputy director at the
National Institutes of Health, said the list was based on a wide
variety of research that uses fetal cells from various sources. The
sources include umbilical-cord blood, placentas, elective abortions
and spontaneous abortions.
Researchers are required to obtain
approval through federal and local review procedures, one official
said.
At Yale University, studies involving human fetal
tissue "get more than a full review," said Dr. Robert Levine, a
professor of medicine and editor of the institutional review board
journal.
"We usually table a discussion, have a subcommittee
study the proposed research and report back," he said. "We are
reluctant to go too fast and overlook anything."
The most
interesting fetal tissue research at Yale involves transplanting
fetal brain tissue into patients with Parkinson's disease, Levine
said. The research, involving tissue that comes from aborted
fetuses, was started several years ago and is supported by private
funding.
"There was controversy within the university as to
whether we should being do this," he said. "But there was very
little controversy outside the university."
At Loyola
University in Chicago, researchers have "grown" blood cells from
umbilical cords in the laboratory. They were used for bone-marrow
transplants in adults at high risk from leukemia and non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma for whom no suitable marrow donor could be
found.
The university has put out press releases about the
work, which has gone through federal and institutional
reviews.
In 1988, at the University of Colorado Health
Sciences Center, researchers performed a fetal cell implant on a
Parkinson's patient. That work continues.
Elective abortions
provide the embryonic cells that are implanted in hopes of replacing
the loss of dopamine-producing cells in the brains of Parkinson's
patients, said Sarah Ellis, a university spokeswoman.
"It has
not particularly been a controversial sort of research," she
said.
She said she believes the university also relied on the
work of a federal commission that looked at fetal tissue issues in
the late 1980s. However, both President Reagan and Bush had banned
federal fetal-tissue research.
And although Northwestern
University was on the National Institutes of Health grant list,
spokeswoman Elizabeth Crown said, "To the best of our knowledge,
there is no human fetal tissue research going on at
Northwestern."
The University of Iowa is among the
institutions that are forthright about their carrying out research
that uses tissue from elective and spontaneous abortions.
"We
are very open about our research," said Dr. David Skorton, vice
president for research. "There is no attempt to put anything over on
anybody."
He said he doesn't know, however, how aware the
public is of the research at the University of Iowa.
And
finally, at the University of Minnesota, there have been "very few"
studies in the past 12 years that have involved human fetal tissue,
said Teri Charest, a university spokeswoman. Yet, some of the tissue
used does come from abortions, she said.
The university also
has 11 projects using umbilical cord blood, she said.
Charest
said that she is not aware of any public reaction to the human fetal
cell research but admits that she does not know how much awareness
there is of it in the general public.
|