ABSTRACT
‘Fetal research’ must be looked at in parallel with fetal existence which has no uniform pattern but is, rather, a matter of phases, each of which differs as to philosophical and ethical evaluation. Research and experimentation may be directed to the whole organism, to fetal parts or tissues or to the materials ancillary to the fetal environment including the placenta, the umbilical cord and the fetal membranes. The civil liability of the fetal researcher in the United Kingdom is daunting when his activities are directed to the infant who will live. The Polkinghorne Committee recommended that consent to the use of fetal tissue should be distinct from, and subsequent to, consent to termination of pregnancy although both consents could be obtained on the same occasion. The Polkinghorne Committee preferred the term ‘contents of the uterus’ to the Peel Committee’s ‘fetal materials’; both terms include the placenta, umbilical cord, fluids and membranes.
