91 - Stakeholder Perceptions Towards Fetal and Embryological Collections

Poster Board Number: 91
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Abstract Body : While human development has captured the curiosity of people though the ages, up until the late 19th century studying human development was challenging. The establishment of human fetal and embryos collections (FECs) peaked in the late 19th century, an era pre-dating informed consent, and hence provenance of these collection is not always certain. Today, the collections are historical artifacts, and valuable for education and research. Over the last few years, there has been increased international debate on the most appropriate ethical and sustainable care for FECs, and on the issue of open access. It is clear guidelines are required but developing guidelines requires a lens of cultural humility and respect to the diverse communities and cultures that it will serve. As a start to understanding the views of stakeholder communities, this study aimed to analyse the attitudes of embryology education stakeholders (students, academic staff, laboratory technical staff, and medical professionals) towards human fetal and embryological collection in Australia.
A survey tool was developed and validated to collect perceptions of relevant stakeholders on May 14th 2022 (Reference Number: HC220130). The survey was distributed via email and social media during 14th of July – 14th of August 2022. Chi-Square Test of independence was performed to ascertain associations and One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine whether any statistically significant differences existed between the means of two or more unrelated groups. Associations were statistically significant if P < 0.05. A total of 86 participants in Australia completed the survey: 55 women, 60 people who are secular, 40 students, and 59 registered organ donors. Students were more likely to perceive value in establishing new FECs compared to staff and professional groups (p=0.002). 54.7% of participants were supportive of new FECs being established with donated remains with maternal and paternal consent with no significant difference among the stakeholder groups (p>0.05). 57.0% of participants agreed that a commemoration should be established for embryological/fetal remains and 45.3% agreed that a memorial should be built. 100% of participants agreed that institutions should not financially benefit from digital prints of remains. The results of this study indicate that informed consent was highly desired for donations to FECs among Australian stakeholders. This high regard for informed consent extended to the management and utilisation of FECs. Interestingly, the attitudes towards FECs closely mirror attitudes towards body donors especially regarding commemorations and memorials. The results from this study have implication for guidelines on care of collections in Australia. Future studies intend to assess the similarity of these attitudes to people in different communities in Australis and in other geographical regions of the world.