Ethical aspects of neural tissue transplantation

The method of neural grafting is considered to be a very promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of certain neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease or Huntington's disease. During the last 15 years, clinical transplantation studies have been carried out worldwide in several hundreds of patients with Parkinson's disease. In these studies, primarily fetal mesencephalic tissue derived from aborted human fetuses has been used for implantation. Neural tissue transplantation gives rise to ethical issues in two different areas that need careful examination: the first, ethical problems linked to the use of tissue from aborted human fetuses; and the second, ethical issues concerning the graft recipients in clinical trials, i.e., his or her well-being, personality, and personal identity.