Fetal Tissue Research

[mhollowa at ccmail.sunysb.edu]

In article <2sl2ge$2qa at rebecca.albany.edu> tivol at tethys.ph.albany.edu writes:

>That, I suppose, is why *they* should care.  My view is that tissue is tissue
>and if a good use can be made of something which otherwise would be discarded
>it would be foolish and even against my religion *not* to make use of it.

The problem, I believe, is not religious teaching, even among those 
who say they object because of it.  There's nothing in 
Judeo/Christian teachings, for instance, that precludes organ 
donation.  Yet there seems to be a large number of people who'll 
insist that there is.  The real problem is a strong distrust of the 
medical profession.  Religious objection is just a convenient 
excuse to rationalize these vague feelings.  

Somehow, the public has to be made to believe that organ and tissue 
donation, allocation, and transplantation can be done ethically.  
After all, anatomical gift laws were passed in the early `80's not 
because there was rampant commericial sale of organs and tissue (or 
any sale for that matter) but because of fear that it might happen.

Mike Holloway
mhollowa at epo.som.sunysb.edu