From: L-Bueno@cup.portal.com (Louis Alberto Bueno)
Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Subject: CLINTON ACTION ON FETAL TISSUE EXPECTED TO BRING NEW TREATMENTS
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 93 09:31:51 PST
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world

	Copied without permission from:     
	New York Newsday, January 22, 1993

	CLINTON ACTION ON FETAL TISSUE EXPECTED TO BRING NEW TREATMENTS

	By Jamie Talan

	President Clinton's lifting of the ban on federal funding of fetal
tissue transplants should speed efforts to develop new treatments for
Parkinson's disease, and possibly diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and spinal
cord injuries, scientists said Friday.
	Several Parkinson's researchers were racing to finish federal grant
proposals, due next week, that if funded would allow them to use tissue
from aborted fetuses to treat people with the disabling brain condition.
	Early reports on a few dozen Parkinson's transplants suggest that
they can dramatically improve the tremors, rigidity and slowed movements
common to the disorder.
	"We are very excited," said Dr. Eugene Redmond, a Yale researcher
who pioneered fetal transplant surgery in the United States, relying only
on private funds. "At least now there will be more studies and a greater
probability that we will nail down the details of the procedure."
	Anti-abortion activists, however, said they feared that the change
would lead to more abortions. Myrna Gutierrez, of Americans United for
Life, called the research "an indirect incentive that justifies the act of
killing your unborn child." That view had led former President Reagan in
1988 to ban funding of fetal transplants.
	Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., disagreed. "President Clinton has
restored scientific integrity to NIH," he said, referring to the National
Institutes of Health, which distributes most federal funds for medical
research. "Clinton could see that this was not an abortion issue, it was
about saving lives. I can think of no action that the president could take
today that is more pro-life or more pro-research."
	Although fetal-tissue research has focused most on Parkinson's,
scientists agree that fetal tissue offers potential to treat many other
diseases, including diabetes, Alzheimer's, Huntington's and spinal cord
injuries.
	Immature fetal cells, because they are still growing, are better
able to adapt to their new host than mature cells can. The theory is that,
when placed in the brain or spinal cord, fetal cells could make the
necessary chemical and biological connections to thrive. The new tissue,
with its own supply of growth factors and chemicals, could pump out
sustances the diseased brain lacks.
	   
	"There are millions of Americans who could benefit from these
studies," said Joan Samuelson, a 42-year-old Parkinson's patient who spent
the past two years lobbying senators and members of Congress in favor of
the research.
	During the ban, Parkinson's transplants were done only at Yale, the
University of Colorado and, more recently, Hospital of the Good Samaritan
in Los Angeles.
	In 1988, before the ban was imposed, a federal advisory committee
recommended the use of fetal tissue in treating Parkinson's. It drew up
guidelines designed to prevent women from getting abortions in order to
provide fetal tissue for loved ones or for money. The guidelines also say
that doctors should not change their abortion techniques to help preserve
fetal tissue for research.
	NIH Director Dr. Bernadine Healy said Friday that she hoped to
"dust off the guidelines," which she helped draft in 1988. "I have never
changed my views on this," said Healy, who publicly supported the ban.
"Privately, I believed in the research."
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