The transcript of the show, live feedback, and the hearing transcript--the
works--are all at:
http://abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/2020_000308_fetalparts_feature.html
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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