Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
In response to the uproar over the Planned Parenthood baby parts scandal, several states are now moving to ban the use of fetal tissue in research, which some scientists say will be a setback for medical progress while others say reliance on aborted baby parts is old science and better sources of stem cells are now available.
FoxNews.com is reporting on lawmakers in California and Wisconsin who are proposing new legislation that will tighten state laws regulating the harvesting of organs from aborted fetuses.
“They say the summer release of nine undercover videos featuring Planned Parenthood representatives and others talking candidly about obtaining and transferring fetal body parts to laboratories has sparked outrage among their constituencies, and has ‘pulled back the curtain’ on what they say is a gruesome business,” Fox reports.
Wisconsin Republican state Senator Scott Fitzgerald says “There’s a lot of outrage and I think certainly a lot of strong feelings (in the General Assembly) similar to what we are hearing from our constituencies. They want this to stop and the videos are certainly what’s forcing that.”
He is currently working to pass a bill, authored by Republican assemblyman Andre Jacques, which will not only prohibit the sale of fetal body parts, which is already banned under federal law, but also demands that “no person may knowingly and for valuable consideration acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer a fetal body part.”
In addition, it would ban all use of fetal tissue from abortions for experimentation; however, an amendment to the bill will allow research to continue on existing stem cell lines.
Lawmakers in California are also working on a bill that will end the practice of clinics taking money in the form of fees and costs in exchange for organs. It will also defund any Planned Parenthood clinic that provides these organs for research. The bill is expected to be introduced in January.
“What these Planned Parenthood videos have demonstrated is a very slippery slope to an immoral landscape,” said California Assemblyman Jim Patterson to Fox. “Anyone with any heart and soul who has seen these videos would have to come out and say with conviction that this is not the society we want to be.”
However, some scientists are alarmed by the trend and say making the acquisition of this tissue so difficult could seriously undermine medical progress.
“There is no doubt about the potential life-saving value of fetal tissue in advancing medical progress,” said Dean Robert Golden of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and his counterpart, Dr. John Raymond of the Medical College of Wisconsin, in a recent op-ed.
According to Fox, the university has been active in arguing against Jacque’s bill and 700 members of the university faculty signed a letter opposing the measure. They claim the use of fetal cells are now used for making vaccines for rubella, shingles, chickenpox and other diseases “that cripple and kill children and adults”. They claim that if the cells are discarded, “people who need effective treatments will go without help.”
Even though the Catholic Church allows the use of vaccinations that are created from aborted fetuses if no alternative is available, it also demands that the faithful urge pharmaceutical companies to find alternatives – which are apparently very much available.
In this article appearing earlier this summer in National Review, Dr. David Prentice, an Indiana University stem cell specialist and research director for the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, says reliance on rich fetal cells is a “holdover” from the 60’s and 70’s when scientists were just learning how to grow cells in the lab and it was easier to grow fetal tissue
“Frankly, there is no advantage, nowadays, in fetal stem cells over adult cells,” Prentice said. “The science has matured.”
In addition to using adult cells, umbilical cord cells are also very much in demand now because they are a rich source of stem cells and come without the ethical problems associated with harvesting cells from aborted babies.
Prentice says the reason why so many labs are still using fetal cells is because many of them aren’t bothered by the fact that they are derived from abortions.
“The other part of it,” he says, “is that I don’t think they have caught on with the more recent science. They are still working off this mindset of easier growing tissue, faster growing tissue and that’s why they’re looking for fetal rather than adult stem cells.”
He continued: “If you look at the published results, whether it’s adult stem cells and then comparing to fetal stem cells or to embryonic stem cells, when we talk about treating patients, adult stem cells are the gold standard. And virtually all success — over a million patients now — is due to adult stem cells.”
Planned Parenthood’s lies continue to fall apart under closer scrutiny.
For instance, they’ve been claiming for years that without their clinics, women would lack vital health care. We now know that they’re a small player in a vast network of health care facilities in the U.S. that provide even more comprehensive health care to women, such as providing the mamograms Planned Parenthood doesn’t offer.
They also tell women who are about to abort their children that donating their baby’s body parts will advance science. We now know that research which relies on fetal tissue is considered to be “old science” and that labs no longer need this tissue at all in order to continue their work in combating major diseases.
We can add these lies to their already large retinue of untruths alongside other whoppers such as how a 10 week old baby is “just a blob of cells”, how contraception cuts down on the number of abortions, and how abortion is safer than childbirth – all of which have been thoroughly demolished by intelligent reseach.
Let us hope that this baby parts scandal is the beginning of the end of this evil empire.
