[Nhcoll-l] legal issues with human embryos

[Kirsten Nicholson]

I'm seeking advice/knowledge on how to deal with human embryos.  Its been
brought to my attention that there is a "collection" of human embryos on
our campus (several jars, different stages of development ranging from
around 4 weeks to 28 weeks) that are used in two classes for teaching
purposes (examination only through the jars).  They were brought here
around 30 years ago by a former graduate student that was working for a
professor/surgical doctor in Chicago who had a duplicate set and allowed
the student to
bring them here.

There's of course no paperwork associated with them, but I'm thinking this
is a bomb waiting to go off for us, and I'm not really sure where to begin
in dealing with this (mind you, they were in the biology department, but
they wanted to know if we wanted to officially accession them into our
museum collection.  As a member of the department as well, seems like we
need to deal with legalities either way).

Any thoughts for me on this?

Thanks,

Kirsten

-- 
Kirsten E. Nicholson, Ph.D

*Assoc. Prof. Biology          and       Curator of Natural History
Dept. of Biology                             Museum of Cultural and Natural
History
217 Brooks Hall                            103 Rowe Hall
Central Michigan Univ.                 Central Michigan University
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859                 Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859
989-774-3758                                989-774-3829**


*
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