Ben Carson Once Did Fetal Tissue Research (here come the Carson attacks)

Buzzfeed ^ | Virginia Hughes

[LS]

In a 1992 study, Carson and his colleagues from Johns Hopkins used fetal tissue to better understand how the human brain develops. But in the wake of the Planned Parenthood videos, the presidential candidate has called fetal tissue research “disturbing.”

Ben Carson, a Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate, previously did research using human fetal tissue.

In the wake of the hidden-camera videos showing Planned Parenthood doctors discussing how to provide aborted fetuses to scientific researchers, Carson has told Fox News that the benefits of this research have been “overpromised” and “under-delivered.”

Late on Wednesday, an OB/GYN and science writer Jen Gunter revealed on her blog a 1992 study in which Carson and three other colleagues used tissue from the fetal brain and nasal cavity to better understand the development of the chambers (or “ventricles”) of the brain. These tissues “were obtained from two fetuses aborted at the ninth and and 17th week of gestation,” the paper says.

Last month on the Fox News program The Kelly File, Carson said:

“At 17 weeks, you’ve got a nice little nose and little fingers and hands and the heart’s beating. It can respond to environmental stimulus. How can you believe that that’s just an irrelevant mass of cells? That’s what they want you to believe, when in fact it is a human being.”

Aborted fetuses have been used for a wide variety of medical research for decades. The vast majority of scientists who depend on this tissue are refusing to talk about it, afraid of retribution from anti-abortion activists.

“As a neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson knows full well that fetal tissue is essential for medical research,” Gunter wrote in her post. “His discipline would have a hard time being [where] it is today without that kind of work.”

A representative from the Carson campaign said they are not commenting at this TIme.

[longfellowsmuse]

I am an RN myself and am well aware of what an “elective vs a spontaneous” abortion is. Remember also that any delivery over 20 weeks is not referred to as a miscarriage and is a premature birth. Regardless of what you believe should be used, reality is, that fetal remains in either instance are very rarely intact and usable for the purpose of teaching medical students. Autopsies on babies that have congenital defects are performed by pathologists but only with the consent of the parents. You should be aware that consent from patients must be obtained for tissue to be used and not infrequently when parents have lost children they refuse to consent to autopsy let alone tissue donation for research.

Informed consent is one aspect of the whole issue regarding the use of aborted fetal tissue. As someone who has professional experience with obtaining the informed consent of patients, it well known that they key term is “informed” and that it is vey possible to get people to sign papers that they really don’t understand. The latest Planned Parenthood video discusses how this might work and I have seen it done myself albeit in a different setting.

Politically, I like Ben Carson and agree that this story was a political “gotcha” however it shows his political naiveté in not discussing his role in fetal tissue research before the left dug up his study. In doing so he wouldn’t have found himself on defense.