The Intrauterine Life [antikvár]

© 1986 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (Biomedical Division) The intrauterine life - Management and therapy J.G. Schenker and D. Weinstein, editors ETHICAL ASPECTS OF FETAL THERAPY AND EXPERIMENTATION LUIGI MASTROIAUril , JR., M.D. William Goodell Professor and Chairman, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 3^00 Spruce Street, 106 Dulles, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104 Fetal experimentation is a charged term. It congers up Images of Huxley's brave new world and suggests possibilities of genetic manipulation and even cloning. The implications of any new knowledge gained from probing the earliest phases of human development are enormous. Fetal experimentation Immediately focuses attention on fundamental values. Throughout this conference, the application of knowledge gained from fetal experimentation In diagnosis and treatment will be assessed. It is quite clear that much good has come from fetal experimentation. Nevertheless, the spector of misuse of this new technology Is always with .us. The fundamental question as to how new knowledge will be used, try as we will, cannot be separated from the issues surrounding the immediate appropriateness of fetal experimentation. John ZImon, Chairman of the Council for Science and Society of London, put it aptly when he stated, "A society holds together by the rules that people are bound to obey. Human behavior varies surprisingly from country to country and from era to era. But however bizarre It may appear to the outsider, It must always follow the constraints of biological reality. The trouble with science Is that it changes biological reality. The boundary conditions on the rules of social behavior are suddenly altered, and many people become very frightened." This isn't to imply that such fears are groundless. Any new technology carries with It the possibility of misuse. The mechanisms which operate in the fetus and especially In early stages of development, however, seem to offer a greater opportunity for misuse. There are those who would, out of fear, encourage legal obstacles to the development of procedures which could provide exceptional benefit. These multiple and sometimes realistic concerns have served as a backdrop for hard looks at fetal experimentation by others than those who carry It out — and this Is good and appropriate. The most conservative of voices are often the loudest, however. Their minds are made up and they have determined that no fetal experimentation Is appropriate. Unfortunately, the Issue has become inexorably linked with that of abortion and with the larger questions as to when life begins and when Is the fetus entitled to all of the rights of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. For those who take the position that the fetus Is not a person until the time of viability, fetal experimentation takes on a straightforward dimension. V/lthin that mind-set, the principal issues. In cases of intrauterine manlpula- I ' t " I ( I • I i »»