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                 Fetuses for Sale?


                                                  Accounts of For-Profit
                                                  Industry Lead to Federal
                                                  Investigation

                                                  Fetal tissue is currently used in
research
                                                  for illnesses like diabetes,
Alzheimer's
                                                  and Parkinson's. (ABCNEWS.com)





                 March 8 —Two hours after getting radiation
                 treatment for thyroid cancer, Cindy Smith, 31,
                 found out she was pregnant with twins.
                      Though unsure exactly how the radiation had affected
                 the fetuses, or what sort of impact it would later have on
                 their growth, doctors expected multiple birth defects, at
                 best, if Smith carried them full term.
                      It was a difficult choice for the mother of five who has
                 always wanted twins, but Smith decided to end her
                 pregnancy. She also decided to donate her fetuses for
                 medical research.
                      “I wanted to make something positive out of the
                 horrific situation that I was in,” explains Smith. “I wanted
                 to help another mother, another family…It was the one
                 glimmer of hope that I had.”
                      But a year and a half later, Smith’s hope has turned to
                 shock, disbelief and outrage: The fetuses she donated for
                 scientific research were sold for profit. Horrified by the
                 thought of a price tag on human body parts, Smith is not
                 alone. A thriving industry in which aborted fetuses are
                 being marketed for hundreds, even thousands of dollars,
                 raises uncharted ethical questions and ignites a new
                 argument in the battle over abortion.

                 Supply and Demand
                 “It looks like it has rapidly become a kind of business
                 where people are profiteering and basically making a buck
                 by getting tissue and distributing it,” says Arthur Caplan,
                 director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for
                 Bioethics. “It’s a sleazy business.”
                      When President Clinton lifted a long-standing ban on
                 fetal tissue research in 1993, the tissue became available
                 for potentially lifesaving purposes. Now, fetal tissue is in
                 demand because doctors believe it may be the key to
                 medical breakthroughs, such as cures for diabetes,
                 Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Some researchers,
                 for example, use particular fetal cells in their search for
                 cures and improved treatment, others require whole
                 organs or limbs.
                      To prevent the trafficking of body parts, Congress had
                 also passed a law making it a felony to purchase or sell
                 the tissue for profit. Procurement agencies, which collect,
                 preserve and ship the fetuses, may only charge reasonable
                 fees to compensate for their costs. Also, to remove any
                 incentive for a woman to have an abortion, federal law
                 demands a woman’s consent for abortion prior to consent
                 for fetal tissue donation. Finally, there may be no altering
                 in the method of abortion for purposes of getting a better
                 specimen.
                      But there is evidence that companies may be violating
                 the law, by openly trafficking fetal body parts, influencing
                 consent to donate and modifying abortion procedures.
                 And despite the government’s attempts to regulate fetal
                 tissue research, such violations inflame the debate over
                 abortion.
                      People on both sides of the issue may be opposed to
                 fetal trafficking and profiteering, but they also have
                 individual concerns about how the discovery of a
                 for-profit fetal tissue industry may impact their distinct
                 agendas. Pro-lifers argue that a financial incentive could
                 encourage more women to have abortions, and
                 pro-choice advocates fear such evidence could be used to
                 eliminate access to abortion services altogether.

                 Not-So-Big Big Business
                 “This is purely for profit. Everything was about money,”
                 says Dean Alberty, who worked for two companies that
                 served as middlemen by getting fetuses from abortion
                 clinics and shipping them to researchers. Alberty says he
                 helped put together one of the firm’s price list — from
                 $325 for a spinal cord to $999 for a brain — prices, he
                 says, that far exceeded the company’s costs.
                      The companies for which he worked, Alberty claims,
                 even at times told him to take tissue from fetuses that were
                 not intended for research. He also alleges that some
                 women who donated at an early stage of pregnancy were
                 put through longer, more uncomfortable abortions using
                 the syringe method, which yields better tissue than than the
                 typically used suction machine.
                      Alberty, who says he was originally pro-choice, grew
                 so disturbed by what he saw that he contacted Life
                 Dynamics, a Texas pro-choice group that paid him
                 $10,000 to be an informant. Denying that he has made up
                 stories to push a political agenda, Alberty says, “I will
                 stand behind my words until I die. I will go in front of
                 Congress if I have to and testify under oath.”

                 Holding Violators Accountable
                 Rep. Thomas Bliley (R-VA), who chairs the United States
                 House Commerce Committee, says they are now
                 investigating four companies and have found evidence that
                 they may be selling tissue for profit. The House
                 Commerce Health and Environmental Subcommittee will
                 hold a hearing on this issue tomorrow.
                      For Cindy Smith, this action is a step toward justice,
                 but it does not relieve her anger. “I did not donate that
                 thinking ever that someone was going to profit,“ she says,
                 “and that just really bothers me because that’s not what I
                 intended at all.”


                  SEARCH ABCNEWS.com FOR MORE ON …









                                                             W E B  L I N K

                                                             U.S. House Hearing,
                                                             Fetal Tissue



                                                             “It looks like it
                                                             has become a
                                                             kind of
                                                             business
                                                             where people
                                                             are profiteering
                                                             and basically
                                                             making a buck
                                                             by getting
                                                             tissue and
                                                             distributing it.”

                                                             — Arthur Caplan,
                                                             University of
                                                             Pennsylvania Center for

                                                             Bioethics

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--
Charlotte A. Mancuso
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