Concern about the reliability and safety of tissue obtained from spontaneously aborted fetuses makes tissue from induced abortions medically preferable. The use of fetal tissue for research purposes is not a recent phenomenon. The study and culture of fetal cells dates back to the 1930's. Since early in its history, fetal tissue has been used in developing cell lines. A cell line is a sample of cells originating from the same parent cell, that has undergone the process of adaptation to artificial laboratory cultivation and is capable of sustaining continuous long-term growth in culture.
Fetal cells provide special advantages as cell lines because of their rapid growth and adaptability.
Cell lines prepared from human tissues are essential to the conduct of a wide variety of research efforts having application to rheumatology and are especially important in the production of human vaccines. Fetal tissue is also used in transplantation into people with a variety of diseases to cure or ameliorate their conditions. Properties of fetal tissue make it less likely to be rejected by a recipient than tissue obtained from adult donors. These stipulations represent the only instances in which the regulations regarding fetal tissue research and the use of fetal tissue in research overlap in these two distinct areas. The use of fetal tissue is also regulated under individual state laws.