Historical collections of embryologic and fetal specimens face a wide variety of challenges ethically. Most significant though may be changes in cultural attitudes that are running opposite to those facing many other collections, namely a desire to remove these collections from public discourse and history. Many of these collections were amassed prior to the era of informed consent and for the purpose of spectacle as much as for the advancement of science and almost all collections occurred when society placed little more value on human tissue than it did medical waste. Independent of these concerns is the sphere that these collections of materials occupy philosophically. While these collections undoubtedly contain human remains, depending on individual cultural beliefs, they might not contain humans that ever existed. This caveat creates a dilemma about what, if any, rights should be afforded to these collections. Further complicating the vast majority of these collections is the knowledge that their provenance is not related to the identity of the specimens themselves through heredity or cultural connections, but often only through the clinician that supplied the material. Simple disposition of these collections, as is most often the case, ignores the significance of these collections historically and their educational potential in the fields of fetology, anatomy, ethics, philosophy, and law. Treated respectfully, these collections can form a nexus for scientific communication independent of culture and society given that these specimens have never definitively existed within them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]