The Trump administration has decided to discontinue funding for research involving fetal tissue.
The Trump administration said Wednesday it is ending medical research by government scientists using human fetal tissue, a victory for abortion foes that comes despite impassioned pleas from scientists that some health problems can’t be studied any other way.
Research using fetal tissue that otherwise would be discarded has been funded by the government, under leadership of both political parties, for decades — and has led to life-saving advances including development of vaccines for rubella and rabies, and drugs for the HIV virus.
Officials said government-sponsored research by universities will be allowed to continue, subject to additional scrutiny.
The end of federal funding, and the rise of (undoubtedly hostile) federal scrutiny, means as a practical matter that use of fetal tissue is about to stop. The irony, of course, is that far more careful ethical thought goes into this research than the witless clichés endlessly repeated by pious boobs who have never in their lives had a genuine thought.