Federal scientists end White House research on fetal tissue

The Trump administration said on Wednesday it was ending medical research by government scientists using human fetal tissue, reversing scientists' view that there was no other way to tackle the problem. some health problems and granting a major victory to the opponents of abortion.

The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement that university-funded research carried out by universities involving fetal tissue could continue, subject to further review.

Policy changes will not affect research funded by private funds, officials said.

Fetal tissues are used in research on HIV and childhood cancers, in treatments involving the body's immune system in the fight against cancer and in the search for a vaccine against the Zika virus, cause of malformations birth. Tissue from non-urgent abortions would otherwise be discarded. Scientists use it to produce mice that model the functioning of the human immune system.

Ending the use of fetal tissue by the National Institutes of Health has been a priority for anti-abortion activists, an essential element of President Donald Trump's political base.

The NIH Government Scientific Director, Francis Collins, said last December that "there is strong evidence that fetal tissue research has scientific benefits."

A senior administration official said the decision announced Wednesday was the call of the president and not that of Collins. The grievor spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations.

The government has funded research using fetal tissue for decades under the administrations of both political parties.

The government said that there were currently at least three active federal research projects involving human fetal tissue, and perhaps up to 12. Among government-funded academic research projects, officials reported that less than 200 out of 50,000 used human fetal tissue.

No program run by a university will be affected at the moment, said the administration. New projects proposing to use fetal tissues and ongoing projects likely to be renewed will be subject to further reviews.

Last year, the administration announced that it would consider whether taxpayers' money was properly spent in fetal tissue research. As a result, NIH has frozen the acquisition of new tissue. On Wednesday, the administration also announced not renewing its contract with the University of California at San Francisco, which expires, and which involves research on fetal tissue.

Although HHS has said it wants to balance the "pro-life" and "pro-science" imperatives, medical investigators have expressed concern that the government will stop important research to satisfy anti-abortion activists.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said in a statement that the administration had "once again done well to restore a culture of life in our government."

Susan B. Anthony List, a group that works to elect lawmakers opposed to abortion, said in a statement that taxpayer funding should be used to promote alternatives to use of fetal tissue in medical research.

The groups say that alternatives are available; Scientific groups say this is not the case for all diseases and conditions.

Trump presents himself as "strongly pro-life" and his administration has taken many measures to restrict access to abortion, which remains a legal medical procedure. Trump has appointed federal judges who oppose abortion, have tried to reduce spending on family planning and expanded the legal protection of medical providers who oppose abortion .

At a hearing in the House on this topic last December, neuroscientist Sally Temple told lawmakers that the unanimous opinion in the scientific community was that there was currently no adequate substitute for fetal tissue in some areas of research.

Temple explained that tissue samples from different stages of the life cycle are not interchangeable. "It's not the same material," she said. "It's a different stage of development, it has unique properties." She testified on behalf of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

Biochemist Tara Sander Lee, who testifies on behalf of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, who opposes abortion, said that the tissues of infants to undergo heart surgery are among the alternatives . But Temple said the researchers would easily use alternatives to the fetal tissue, if it was convenient.

Research involving fetal tissue accounted for $ 98 million in NIH grants and projects during fiscal 2017, a small fraction of the organization's overall research budget. The NIH stated that the $ 98 million represents the total budget for these grants, although only a small portion of it was devoted to fetal tissue research.

In its statement, HHS announced that it is taking such steps as part of a $ 20 million grant program announced last December to "develop, demonstrate, and validate experimental models only as long as they are in place. not relying on human fetal tissue resulting from voluntary abortions ".