Dr. Ben Carson Response To Accusation Of Research On Fetal Tissue

I was able to find the research paper (pdf) in full. I don’t speak gibberish (research language)... but since you had a MD in your name perhaps you could confirm where the paper that gave him 3rd billing was for just contributing a sample. Do doctors just give samples out on a whim or do they vet research and researchers for their methods. Do you get 3rd billing in something you didn’t know? The paper has a list of contributors at the end, if you just gave samples wouldn’t you just be listed there?

I don’t know, but not buying that he didn’t know this research used babies in it. I can buy that he can claim that baby tissue is not any better than other tissue since if he researched this he has a working knowledge that one is not better than the other.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qsiyzczf7mh23ng/Colloid%20Cysts%20of%20the%20Third%20Ventricle%20-%20tsuchida%2092.pdf?dl=0

I was able to find the research paper (pdf) in full. I don’t speak gibberish (research language)... but since you had a MD in your name perhaps you could confirm where the paper that gave him 3rd billing was for just contributing a sample.

I am not a doctor nor have I ever claimed to be one. The MD in my screen name refers to Maryland where I was from before moving to PA = Pennsylvania. I am however very interested in science and medicine and once seriously considered a career in veterinary medicine, although that was a long, long time ago. I read over the paper to which you linked and I can follow the general gist although not all the terminology, but that you call it “gibberish” is rather telling.

Do doctors just give samples out on a whim or do they vet research and researchers for their methods. Do you get 3rd billing in something you didn’t know? The paper has a list of contributors at the end, if you just gave samples wouldn’t you just be listed there?

I do not know the answer to that. However since Dr. Carson is a neurosurgeon and has written many papers on brain tumors, I would image that he shares his findings and shares brain tumor samples with other researchers doing similar research as they do with him and to one extent or another collaborated in the study to be listed. He is also was the head of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins were the research was done. But I do agree that the extent of Dr. Carson’s involvement and contributions to the final paper are not clear.

I don’t know, but not buying that he didn’t know this research used babies in it. I can buy that he can claim that baby tissue is not any better than other tissue since if he researched this he has a working knowledge that one is not better than the other.

“The fetal tissue that was viewed in this study by others was not collected for this study.”

I agree it is a fine line, however while the paper states “Human choroid plexus, ependyma, and nasal mucosa were obtained from two fetuses aborted at the ninth and 17th week of gestation” for one, it doesn’t say whether the fetal samples were obtained from elective abortions or from spontaneous abortions, i.e. miscarriages as the medical terminology doesn’t always make that distinction clear. Likely they came from elective abortions but the second point is that the tissues used were not collected specifically for this study. In other words, they didn’t order them out of a StemExpress catalogue or get them from PP. Most likely they came from the hospital’s Johns Hopkins’ tissue lab.

Fetal tissue from what I understand is helpful in some types of medical research as a control when used to compare healthy tissues to diseased tissues.

"We have banked material in the pathology lab from people from every age -- from day 1 of concept to 120 years told. Those specimens are available for people who want to do comparisons," Carson said. "To not use the tissue that is in a tissue bank, regardless of where it comes from, would be foolish. Why would anybody not do that?"

Carson also issued a statement, saying, "There is absolutely no contradiction between the research I worked on in 1992 and my pro-life views. The issue of fetal tissue has everything to do with how the tissue is acquired. My primary responsibility in that research was operating on people to obtain diseased tissue for comparison to banked tissue samples. Killing babies and harvesting tissue for sale is very different than taking a dead specimen and keeping a record of it, which is exactly the source of the tissue used in our research."

Great response by Carson. He is an honorable man being smeared wonder if it is RINO’s or Dimrats.

Exactly! As I’ve stated before on FR, it’s a damned shame that the Obama experience is likely to ruin any chance for another black candidate - even an exceptional one - for a long time to come. I, for one, would vote for Allen West tomorrow.