Trump administration limits research using fetal tissue

"At UCSF, today's action puts an end to a 30-year partnership with the [National Institutes of Health] (NIH) to use specially designed models that could only be developed through the use of fetal tissue to find a cure for HIV, "Hawgood said in a statement. The UCSF exercised appropriate oversight and complied with all federal and federal laws. We believe that this decision is politically motivated, short-sighted and not based on reliable scientific data. "

Fetal tissues have been used since the 1930s for vaccine development and, more recently, to advance stem cell research and treatments for degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. One of the first advances in fetal tissue has been the use of fetal kidney cells to create the first polio vaccines, which now should save 550,000 lives worldwide each year.

The review also resulted in the decision "to discontinue intramural research – research conducted within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – involving the use of human fetal tissue from a voluntary abortion. will not be conducted, "said the agency.

Research projects conducted outside the National Institutes of Health and funded by agency grants will not be affected "during the currently approved project period". Health and Human Services said the renewal process for these projects or new projects requesting the use of human fetal tissue from voluntary abortions will first be recommended for eventual funding. Then they will have to go through the NIH * external scientific review process. "An * Ethics Advisory Committee will be convened to review the research project and decide whether, in light of ethical considerations, the NIH should fund the research project, in accordance with a law passed by Congress."

The agency said it will also change its subsidy policies and regulations for this type of research.

Wednesday's announcement is the conclusion of this commitment.

Health and Human Services announced Wednesday that it was conducting a review to determine if there are "adequate alternatives" for the use of human fetal tissue from voluntary abortions and that He will use it to speed up the search for alternatives. For this effort, he committed $ 20 million for research "to develop, demonstrate and validate" alternative experimental models.

The history of fetal tissue in research

Since the 1930s, American scientists have used fetal tissue obtained by voluntary abortion as part of medical research and experimental therapies. And this research has been funded by the federal government since the 1950s.

Those opposed to abortion have been seeking for decades to prohibit the use of federal funds to support research based on human fetal tissue, while most researchers support its use. Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, a nonprofit organization against abortion, said the organization "applauded" the Trump administration 's action on the issue. use of fetal tissue in research.

Generally, fetal tissues are used to develop cells that "mimic many of the properties they possess in a living body, and can therefore serve as a model for researchers," according to a 2015 Congressional Research Service report. Government data show that the National Institutes of Health spend about $ 100 million a year on research on human fetal tissue.

At a hearing in December, two subcommittees of the House discussed alternatives to the use of fetal tissue for research. The debates before the committees focused on the benefits and value of two types of humanized mice: one needs fetal tissue; the other not.

"There is no substitute today," Morris said. "No other reproducible, robust and clinically relevant material is available." "Materials obtained from spontaneous abortions", she said, for example, are not only "very variable", but often contain "critical gene defects".