Our organizations represent scientific, medical, and patient communities dedicated to advancing medical knowledge and improving human health. We support the continued use of human fetal tissue (HFT) in research because it is an indispensable biomedical research tool crucial for life-saving biomedical research.

The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) today released updated guidelines for stem cell research and its translation to medicine. The update reflects emerging advances including, stem cell-based embryo models, human embryo research, chimeras, organoids, and genome editing.

The scientific community appreciates that the Biden Administration is lifting the arbitrary restrictions on promising biomedical research using human fetal tissue. Fetal tissue is a crucial research tool that has contributed to numerous scientific advances and saved millions of lives. It was critical for the development of vaccines for polio, rubella, measles, chickenpox, and rabies. It remains essential for creating models of the human immune system for studying viral infections from HIV, Zika, coronavirus, and other viruses.