Author: MYRNA E. WATANABE, pp.1
Sometime this month, the National Institutes of Health will announce the recipients of the first federal grants since 1988 for research on human fetal tissue transplants using material derived from elective abortions--the main source of live and healthy fetal tissue that can be maintained in culture and used for therapeutic transplants.
Proposals for the projects were submitted in early 1993, only a few days after newly inaugurated President Bill Clinton lifted a five-year- old moratorium on federal funding for such research. Throughout the ban's duration, it was vociferously challenged by scientists who regarded it as a serious roadblock in the pursuit of cures for many human diseases; the ire of these scientists was heightened by the widespread assumption that the moratorium resulted from pressure applied on the White House by anti- abortion groups.
The moratorium prevailed until this year, however, despite the recommendations by a ...
