Reply

We would like to respond to the issues raised by Dr. Lane and his colleagues and to reiterate, as was clearly stated in our article, that the fetuses were legally obtained. In our study, we used 13 fetuses ranging from 7 to 28 weeks gestational age. Seven of these fetuses, ranging from 13 to 21 weeks, were aborted legally under the Eugenics and Maternal Protection Law in Japan. Three fetuses, ranging from 23 to 28 weeks, were stillborn and obtained over a 6-year period from 1977 to 1982. They were kept in our departments with the written consent of their parents for use in education and research. Another three fetuses, ranging from 7 to 11 weeks, had been collected for educational use in the Anatomical Department of the institute to which one of the authors (A.Y.) belonged, and we borrowed them for this study.

The questions concerning the ethical issues raised by Dr. Lane and his colleagues in the second paragraph of their letter are unwarranted. Ethical issues arising in this kind of study using fetal materials are of equal concern to us just as they seem to be to Dr. Lane.