“It’s a moral decision that places the rights of fetal tissue that would be discarded above the rights of sick people who will benefit from that research.”How human fetal tissue has been usedHuman fetal tissue has been used to study serious diseases and disorders, including AIDS, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, dengue, Ebola, hepatitis C, diabetes and spinal cord injuries. Goldstein said that human fetal tissue research also helps create humanized mouse models to study human immune systems. Impacts of ending NIH fundingThe Trump administration first instituted a ban ending all human fetal tissue research at NIH in 2019, but it was reversed by the Biden administration in 2021. However, the loss of NIH funding for human fetal tissue research could affect future work. Goldstein said there are private disease foundations that will sometimes fund human fetal tissue research, such as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which funds stem-cell-related research in California.