Medicine: Fetus Furor

Medical researchers have recently succeeded in treating people with such chronic diseases as diabetes and Parkinson's with transplants of human fetal tissue. So far, doctors in the U.S. have used fetuses only in experimental transplants on laboratory animals suffering from conditions mimicking human ailments. Most such research in federal labs came to an abrupt halt last week. The Reagan Administration banned the use of intentionally aborted fetal tissue by Government scientists until an outside panel can examine the ethical implications of the practice. Experiments involving tissue obtained from miscarriages can proceed.

The move, applauded by abortion foes, was prompted by a National Institutes of Health proposal to treat Parkinson's patients with fetal brain tissue, a technique used for the first time by physicians in Mexico City last January. Reaction to the moratorium ranged from outrage to cautious endorsement. "A complete ban really blocks the prospects of investigating what could be a promising medical procedure," says Dr. Robert Burke, a neurologist at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan. A better approach, he thinks, would be to allow research in a few supervised institutions to continue while the debate on the ethical issues goes on.