PepsiCo Says It Will Halt Use of Aborted Fetal Cells in Flavor Research

The New American ^ | 5/23/12 | Dave Bohon

[JohnKinAK]

A pro-life leader has won a victory in her efforts to convince soft-drink manufacturer PepsiCo to stop the use of aborted fetal cells in its research for enhancing the flavors of its products. Debi Vinnedge, executive director of Children of God for Life (COGFL), announced that in late April she had received a letter from Paul Boykas, PepsiCo’s vice president for Global Public Policy, confirming that the company will not allow the use of HEK-293 — a cell line derived from human embryonic kidney — in its partnership with Senomyx, the company with which it had inked a four-year, $30 million contract for flavor research.

As reported last November by The New American, a PepsiCo shareholder had filed a resolution with the Securities and Exchange Commission in an effort halt the company from contracting with Senomyx, which, according to documents collected by Vinnedge, used cell lines derived from aborted babies in its process of producing artificial flavor enhancers. According to a report by LifeNews.com at the time, Pepsi had “ignored concerns and criticism from dozens of pro-life groups and tens of thousands of pro-life people who voiced their opposition to PepsiCo contracting with biotech company Senomyx even after it was found to be testing their food additives using fetal cells from abortions.”

But after a nearly year-long campaign led by COGFL that included a nationwide boycott of PepsiCo products, in late April Boykas sent a letter to Vinnedge assuring her that PepsiCo would not “conduct or fund research — including research performed by third parties — that utilizes any human tissue or cell lines derived from embryos or fetuses.” Boykas also assured Vinnedge that “Senomyx does not use HEK cells or any other tissues or cell lines derived from human embryos or fetuses for research performed on behalf of PepsiCo.”

[discostu]

Nobody is saying it makes abortion good, we’re just saying it DOESN’T make experimentation with samples taken 40 years ago bad. There’s a very important not even slightly subtle difference between the two. It’s a night and day issue, Nazism was bad, VWs and freeways and advanced surgical technique are all pretty darn useful and often times down right good.

[HiTech RedNeck]

ownership on a cosmic level has absolutely nothing to do with it

This is where our company parts. That has everything to do with good and evil. And that was a mighty short goodbye after your pledge. How can we miss you if you won't go away?

[discostu]

I said bye to the other one not you. You’re keeping logic in it rather than just spouting unrelated Verse. If you don’t want me replying to you then go ahead and stop replying to me.

Cosmic ownership doesn’t make it good or evil. So God owns the tissue sample, what’s that mean? Do we flush it because God owns it? Or do we use it because God owns it? See that’s what I mean by cosmic ownership doesn’t play into it. God owns everything, we already know that, it doesn’t change whether or not a tool acquired through evil can be used for good.

Again it all boils down to the Nazi surgery question that you guys keep avoid. The Nazis advanced surgical science about 20 years, they did all through horrendously evil experiments, but those techniques, and techniques built upon those techniques, have saved literally millions of lives. If we take this absolutist “there was evil involved in getting it so all use is evil” viewpoint that your pushing then every single surgery that’s happened in the western world in the last 50 or 60 years was evil, and every one of those people that lived because of those techniques is tainted by evil. If you realize evil isn’t like algebra, it’s not transitive then you understand that the surgeries are good, they’re saving lives and their origins don’t change that simple fact. And of course good isn’t transitive either, no amount of lives saved turns what the Nazis did good.

They did evil acts, AND good things have come from them. It’s a simple concept that doesn’t change just because God owns the scalpel.

[JohnKinAK]

No the verse is completely related.
In layman’s terms: God writes a conscience unto your heart, but because of your unbelief you supress this conscience and the truth that God speaks to you through it, all the while explaining away the evil and unrighteousness in the world you participate in. As you supress your conscience and God’s voice your heart will grow darker and darker while at the same time you will proclaim your wisdom, completely unaware of just how foolish you are.

For those of us who are saved, your posts are text book examples of the moral relativism so loved by the prideful heathen.