"But researchers say the new restrictions, which were applauded by opponents of abortion, will make it more difficult to study fetal development and stem cell biology, and will slow the hunt for new medical treatments. "It's clearly a political decision, not a scientific one," says Lawrence Goldstein, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego."
"But it is also not a dead end for all such research, he adds: some scientists will turn to a much smaller pool of private funding in lieu of government grants. "Research is going to go ahead, [the decision is] just slowing it down," Goldstein says."
"The NIH says that it funded 77 projects involving human fetal tissue in the fiscal year that began in September 2023, and that researchers can harness recent technological advances in alternative methods, such as computational biology and three-dimensional cell cultures, to conduct their studies. Goldstein says that not all research can be done using alternative methods. "If you want to make fetal kidney cell types for further development for a disease study, you have to have actual fetal kidney to compare the stuff you made," he says. "To not realize that reflects a complete lack of understanding of the field.""
The US National Institutes of Health will no longer support studies using human fetal tissue derived from elective abortions while continuing to fund tissue from miscarriages and stillbirths. The policy reduces access to material used to study fetal development, stem-cell biology and to validate laboratory models for disease research. The NIH reported funding 77 projects involving human fetal tissue in the fiscal year beginning September 2023 and highlighted alternatives such as computational biology and three-dimensional cell cultures. Some scientists will seek private funding or use alternative methods, but certain comparative and validation studies require actual fetal tissue.
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