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Although this may be belaboring the point, I thought it might be helpful to let you know some facts about the fetal tissue used for transplant research. This information relates to the transplant program here in Los Angeles - other centers may be slightly different, although I doubt it. 1) Unfortunately, tissue from spontaneous abortions can not be used. There is a concern that there may be something genetically imperfect with spontaneously aborted tissue and we do not want to place that into a patient's head. This is why we use tissue from elective abortions. 2) Special arrangements have been made with only 1 clinic here and the staff is specially trained to work with the tissue "donors". The woman is not approached about donating her fetal tissue until AFTER the abortion has already occurred - so as to prevent any influence on her decision to have the abortion. 3) There is no financial benefit for anyone involved in the tissue procurement. The woman receives no money and the clinic receives a very small fee for their professional services. 4) No woman can deliberately donate or designate her fetal tissue for research. We have had calls from woman who for various reasons were planning to have an abortion and wanted to donate the tissue for research - and this is definitely not permitted. I guess it must make me sound cold to refer to the unborn baby as "tissue" and the mother as the "donor" - but for me it's a matter of coping with the realities of the situation. By the way, we are currently researching ways to decrease our dependence on fetal tissue from abortions - ie, looking at the use of porcine tissue, exploring ways to "grow" tissue in the laboratory, etc. So this might be a moot point in a few more years. I hope that this may offer some clarification in the minds of those who were wondering just how this happened. Carole