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VVV Tuesday November 9 3:27 PM ET House Takes Up Fetal Tissue Probe By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The House passed a measure Tuesday urging its members to investigate whether private companies are violating federal law by profiting from the sale of fetal parts used in medical research. The resolution passed by voice vote, but some Democrats objected to language that referred to fetal tissue as ``baby body parts'' and said the authors were trying to inflame the debate over abortion rights. House committees normally stage such investigations without prior request or authorization. Congress lifted a ban on federally funded research involving fetal tissue transplants in 1993 but made it a felony to purchase or sell that tissue for a profit. The resolution's sponsor, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., displayed a brochure from a company, which he said no longer has a known address or phone number, that listed prices for fetal parts, including ``$50 for eyes, $150 for lungs and hearts and $999 for an eight-week brain. ``Unfortunately, entrepreneurs appear to have found a profitable niche within the abortion industry and have begun to traffic in the body parts of aborted babies,'' he said. Abortion rights advocates said Congress should investigate possible violations and those breaking the law should be prosecuted but questioned the aim of the resolution. ``The use of inflammatory and imprecise language,'' said Rep. Dianna DeGette, D-Colo., ``does nothing to ensure that these laws are being enforced.'' The sponsors, said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., ``are attempting to corrupt medical research with the politics of abortion.'' But Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said, ``We're inducing through the profit motive abortionists to put the life of their patients at risk for monetary gain.'' Fetal tissue is being used in research into such illnesses as diabetes, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. VVV The harvest of abortion Cover story, World Magazine 10/23/99 Fetal-tissue research: Making the best of a bad situation, or sliding further down the slippery slope? Congress and the Clinton administration's lifting of the fetal-tissue research ban has turned human-remains trafficking into big business By Lynn Vincent Warning: This story contains some graphic detail. As Monday morning sunshine spills across the high plains of Aurora, Colo., and a new work week begins, fresh career challenges await Ms. Ying Bei Wang. On Monday, for example, she might scalpel her way through the brain stem of an aborted 24-week pre-born child, pluck the brain from the baby's peach-sized head with forceps, and plop it into wet ice for later shipment. On Tuesday, she might carefully slice away the delicate tissue that secures a dead child's eyes in its skull, and extract them whole. Ms. Ying knows her employer's clients prefer the eyes of dead babies to be whole. One once requested to receive 4 to 10 per day. Although she works in Aurora at an abortion clinic called the Mayfair Women's Center, Ms. Ying is employed by the Anatomic Gift Foundation (AGF), a Maryland-based nonprofit. AGF is one of at least five U.S. organizations that collect, prepare, and distribute to medical researchers fetal tissue, organs, and body parts that are the products of voluntary abortions. When "Kelly," a woman who claimed to have been an AGF "technician" like Ms. Ying, approached Life Dynamics in 1997, the pro-life group launched an undercover investigation. The probe unearthed grim, hard-copy evidence of the cross-country flow of baby body parts, including detailed dissection orders, a brochure touting "the |
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House Approves Resolution Supporting Hearings on Selling Fetal Body Parts WASHINGTON 11/10/99 The House passed a measure by voice vote Tuesday urging its members to investigate whether private companies are violating federal law by profiting from the sale of fetal parts from abortions used in medical research.
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