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After reading a number of recent posts, I feel compelled to share my viewpoint regarding the Udall Bill and the dilemma arising from the possibility that some research money may be used for fetal tissue transplants. Many of us truly believe that life begins at conception and that abortion, for any reason, is deliberately taking a life. If society tolerates the killing of one one group of human beings, what is keeping it from moving on to another group? We live in a society marked by an attitude of excessive preoccupation with efficiency which sees the growing number of elderly and disabled people as intolerable and too burdensome. Albert Schweitzer summarizes this with the following: "If a man loses his reverence for any part of life - he will lose his reverence for all life." Someone recently mentioned in a post that "there must be hundreds of thousands of 'spontaneous' abortions which would yield tissue for research without compromising anyone's principles." However, besides the fact that this is unethical, it has been reported (last year in both the New York Times and the Washington Post), that fetal tissues from miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies are rarely suitable for transplantation; a finding that researchers said encourages the use of tissue from aborted fetuses for transplants. Tissue must be "harvested at a precise time" in the growth of the baby. The midbrain cells must come from a 8 to 10 week-old fetus. At 10 weeks, this unborn child is already more than two inches long, has a heart that has been beating for several weeks, brain waves that can be read, and a complete nervous system. All of his/her body organs are present. Now, all that is needed, is nourishment and time to grow. In reading your posts, I can hear your frustration and can only imagine your suffering. I am all too familiar with it because my 82 year old mother has PD (going on 8 years) and excruciating osteoarthritis. I also saw my mother-in-law fiercely fight a losing battle with lung cancer. But, for over 20 years, I have also watched two dear friends agonize over the fact that they chose to terminate the lives of their babies. Please understand why so many of us believe that it is wrong to rely on the death of an individual in order to improve another's quality of life. Let us be mutually sensitive to each others concerns. Sincerely, Cathy Smith