The aftermath of the Planned Parenthood Videos continues. Today, the Senate is going to vote about defunding Planned Parenthood. It's a travesty. Planned Parenthood needs to remain funded. In some areas it's the only health care provider that offers reporductive health services. Please go to your Senator's page and encourage our Senators to keep Planned Parenthood funded.
The ethics of tissue donation was addressed twenty years ago. Current conservative Senators Hatch and McConnell voted to allow fetal tissue donation in 1993.
Perhaps the matter of fact demeanor of the doctors discussing procuring tissue from aborted fetuses in highly edited and misleading videos bothers people who can't comprehend how that topic could be discussed over a meal. Healthcare workers often graphically discuss the blood and guts of any medical procedure over lunch. It's typical. These are doctors, not pastors.
This is a subject most people are happier not thinking about. Compounding the issue is that most people don't know that the mentioned $30-$100 per specimen price is small compared to what a "profitable" price would be. They don't know these fees are subject to governmental audit where the verifiable expenses for the supplies, employee compensation, storage and transportation need to match the fees charged. These same people would be staggered to find out how much it costs the recipient of a donated kidney for obtaining, storing and transporting the "donated" organ.
This is a case where the emotional "ewww!" factor has a far greater impact than the facts. The facts are that tissue and organ donations must be a financial wash in order to be legal and compliance isn't optional. Most people are totally unaware of what the federal laws say concerning procuring these tissues. I pulled out the two sections that are in focus today:
PUBLIC LAW 103-43; JUNE 10, 1993and this:
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH REVITALIZATION ACT OF 1993
TITLE I - GENERAL PROVISIONS REGARDING TITLE IV
of PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT
Subtitle A - Research Freedom
PART II - RESEARCH ON TRANSPLANTATION OF FETAL TISSUE
SEC. 111. ESTABLISHMENT OF AUTHORITIES.
Part G of title IV of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 289 et seq.)
is amended by inserting after section 498 the following section:
RESEARCH ON TRANSPLANTATION OF FETAL TISSUE SEC. 498A.(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM-
(1) IN GENERAL - The Secretary may conduct or support research on the transplantation of human fetal tissue for therapeutic purposes.
(2) SOURCE OF TISSUE - Human fetal tissue may be used in research carried out under paragraph (1) regardless of whether the tissue is obtained pursuant to a spontaneous or induced abortion or pursuant to a stillbirth.
PUBLIC LAW 103-43; JUNE 10, 1993
Part G of title IV of the Public Health Service Act, as amended by section 111 of this Act, is amended by inserting after section 498A the following section:
PROHIBITIONS REGARDING HUMAN FETAL TISSUE SEC. 498B.
(d) DEFINITIONS - For purposes of this section:(3) The term valuable consideration' does not include reasonable payments associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of human fetal tissue.'.
This law is an inconvenient truth to many people. It is both legal to donate the fetal tissue and be reimbursed for the costs of donating the fetal tissue. That's not "selling" baby parts at a profit. That's donating tissue for medical research without charging the donor for donating.
If these videos disturb you, may I point out you would be disturbed if you heard doctors describe how they deal with disposing the body tissues after an amputation while eating and drinking (I've been present for such discussions). How do you feel when you watch the brutally explicit anti-tocacco PSAs? The fact is that if you are squeamish (and possibly not so squeamish) you'd be grossed out hearing what is done with a gall bladder or kidney after it's removal. May I suggest you aren't a doctor or work in the medical field because you don't like the idea of dealing with blood and guts and the fact that these tissues must be disposed of in one way or another. To many patients, sending the fetal tissue to a researcher is preferable to incinerating the tissue.
Another inconvenient truth is that fetal tissue will not be replaced entirely by stem cells for years. The demand for donated fetal tissue is increasing and has a significant impact on medical research. Many conservatives and anti-abortion people had no idea that the polio, chicken pox, shingles and the MMR vaccine development were dependent upon fetal tissue. They have no idea that research for treatments for Parkinson's Disease, retinitis pigmentosa, Huntington's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis make use of fetal tissue. They don't care. They are emotionally invested in pushing their agenda and facts don't matter.
This subject is so touchy that known fact checkers won't stick their necks out and say the Center for Medical Progress videos are more than "misleading", they are dramatic misrepresentations of a legal process that is vital for the medical research to alleviate debilitating health conditions. Both Factcheck.org and Politifact both have stated these videos are misleading (Glenn Kessler of WaPo is on vacation or he'd likely have done the same thing), but they won't state the allegations against Planned Parenthood are False, Pants on Fire False or anything of the sort that would clearly state that neither Planned Parenthood nor companies like StemExpress are NOT profiting off donated fetal tissue. Snopes won't even commit to stating the videos are misleading. It's not enough to explain what CMP did without calling out the lies and deceptions of what they did to fraudulently obtain their video footage.
Please take the time to contact your Senator and defend Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood needs your support today.