ATTITUDES OF WOMEN TO FETAL TISSUE RESEARCH

The use of human fetal tissue for scientific research has enormous pot ential but is subject to government legislation. In the United Kingdom the Polkinghorne Committee's guidelines were accepted by the Departme nt of Health in 1990. These guidelines set out to protect women underg oing termination of pregnancy from exploitation but in so doing may si gnificantly restrict potential research. Although the committee took e vidence from a wide variety of experts they did not seek the views of the general public. We asked 108 women about to have a therapeutic abo rtion; 167 women who had had a pregnancy terminated in the past, and 4 19 women who had never had an abortion, their views on research using human fetal tissue. Regardless of their past experiences the women wer e overwhelmingly in favour of research using fetal tissue (94 per cent ). They made little distinction between basic research and research wi th obvious clinical relevance and supported the concept of using trans planted feral tissue for the treatment of adult disease such as Parkin sonism. Women about to undergo an abortion were significantly more lik ely (p<0.001) to approve of all types of research including that aimed at improving methods of abortion and research using live fetuses in u tero.