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Fetal Tissue Research

Is the transplantation of Fetal Tissue considered an ethical procedure? If the process of fetal tissue transplantation is to be considered right it must be further questioned. For something to be right it must serve good, and not serve evil (Lawrence F. Roberg, 1). According to this definition fetal tissue transplants would be considered wrong, because in order to do good to one human, another one must be killed.

Fetal neural tissue is being used as a possible treatment for some diseases. The treatment and possible cure for many of these diseases falls upon the successful transplantation of fetal neural tissue from the brain, spinal chord and peripheral nervous system. Some of the possible beneficiaries of these transplants would be those with Parkinson's disease, a common neurodegenerative disorder of the nervous system. Fetal tissue transplantation involves injecting fetal tissue obtained through electively aborted fetuses into another human being. Because fetal tissue deemed most appropriate and acceptable for transplantation is primarily obtained from elective abortion procedures, many concerns have arisen in the public, political, and scientific communities.

Even thought the tissue has the ability to proliferate (grow and reproduce) and differentiate, only one in three suffering fro Parkinson's disease make a significant progress, and their long term prognosis in unknown (Stephen Currie, 1).

Fetal cells have 4 basic properties:

1. grow & proliferate

2. cell & tissue differentiation

3. produce growth factors

4. reduce antigens compared with adult tissue

Why fetal tissue

The person to God aspect is also