From Pro-Life Wisconsin:
The below article was in the Sept. 10 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Sept. 11 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal. Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, writes about Rep. Andre Jacque's bill, currently in the Wisconsin legislature, that would ban the use of aborted fetal body parts in research projects in the state. Read the bill here. Despite Still's lengthy list of medical research benefiting from aborted fetal tissue, one cannot escape the fact that the purported benefit derives from human beings that are killed and experimented upon without their consent.
The below article was in the Sept. 10 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Sept. 11 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal. Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, writes about Rep. Andre Jacque's bill, currently in the Wisconsin legislature, that would ban the use of aborted fetal body parts in research projects in the state. Read the bill here. Despite Still's lengthy list of medical research benefiting from aborted fetal tissue, one cannot escape the fact that the purported benefit derives from human beings that are killed and experimented upon without their consent.
The legislation bans persons from knowingly and for valuable consideration acquiring, receiving, or transferring a fetal body part. It also bans persons from knowingly providing, receiving, or using for experimentation a fetal body part. Fetal body part is defined to mean a cell, tissue, organ, or other part of an unborn child who is aborted by an induced abortion.
University of Wisconsin (UW) officials already attacked the bill, claiming that it will have a “chilling effect” on the biomedical research UW Madison is currently conducting using aborted fetal tissue. Click here for a Capital Times article detailing the UW’s opposition to AB 214 and Rep. Jacque’s and PLW’s response.
There is documented evidence of UW conducting research on human fetal brain and pancreatic tissue, most recently a 2000 fetal brain cell study conducted by Su-Chun Zhang of the UW-Madison Department of Medical Sciences used immature neural cells from fetal human brain tissue of 15-20 gestation weeks “after elective termination of intrauterine pregnancies” to study neurological disorders including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. The study acknowledged Dr. Dennis Christenson, a late-term abortionist, for his “assistance in this project.”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Ban on fetal tissue research would be a mistake
Tom Still
A report last week in PLoS Biology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, offers a ready example of why Wisconsin lawmakers should tread carefully around a proposal to ban research using fetal tissue.Researchers at the University of California and Texas A&M discovered that a somewhat mysterious soft tissue found in the fetus during early development in the womb plays a vital role in the formation of mature beta cells, the sole source of the body's insulin.Scientists believe the discovery may lead to new ways of addressing Type I and Type II diabetes, conditions that have reached epidemic proportions in the United States and beyond.It just the latest example of how researchers in Wisconsin and beyond use cells derived from human fetal tissue to pursue cures for chronic diseases, to develop and produce vaccines, and to conduct basic research on a wide range of human health issues.A bill introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature would make it a crime for Wisconsin researchers to continue using those cells, even though they have done so legally, ethically and effectively for 50 years or more.Lawmakers who believe they are merely standing firm against abortion should think twice about the far-reaching effects of this bill on medical research and the state's innovation economy.Assembly Bill 214 and Senate Bill 172 would prohibit "a person knowingly and for valuable consideration acquiring, receiving or otherwise transferring a fetal body part in this state."The identical bills define cells and tissues as fetal body parts, and they also ban "providing, receiving or using for experimentation a fetal body part" in Wisconsin - even if there was no "valuable consideration."If passed, the bill would effectively halt valuable work in scores of laboratories at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Medical College of Wisconsin and beyond, shut down long-standing research projects and essentially chase many researchers and emerging companies out of the state.
Click here to read the rest. To submit a letter to the editor, click here.