sed to experiment with is the dead fetus. The dead fetus provides information that can lead to the detection of fetal abnormalities and to help prevent birth defects and diseases in future fetuses (Levy 43).
             As found in Robertson, fetal tissue is essential to medical research for the simple fact that there is no close substitute for fetal tissue. The reason why fetal tissue is so important to medical research is because fetal tissue is highly available. "Currently the fetal tissue used in transplants is retrieved from the one and a half million abortions performed annually in the United States to end unwanted pregnancies" (54). Fetal tissue is less prone to rejection. Due to its less specific immune response, it develops quickly, and has plasticity meaning it has the ability to mold or assume a desired form. Another reason fetal tissue is important to medical research is because it is less specialized, meaning it will be more likely to develop into any adult cell. Fetal tissue is also easy to culture (Maynard-Moody 51-53).
             Fetal tissue from ectopic pregnancies, spontaneously aborted fetuses and stillbirths is not usable tissue. In most cases the tissue received from these fetuses generally is incapable of being used because the fetus has been dead for a few days and the tissue is no longer alive. Therefore the only source of fetal tissue to be researched and transplanted most comes from elective abortions.
             A stillbirth occurs when the fetus dies in or after the twentieth week and is delivered. This kind of tissue is incapable of being transplanted because it has been dead in the body for an unknown amount of time and all the organs and tissues are dead. Besides the fact that the tissue is dead, the tissue would also be too old to be transplanted. Most fetal tissue being used for transplants needs to be retreived before the fetus is twelve weeks.
             A spontaneous abortion also called a miscarriage is when the embryo ...