Free Republic

Revelations about the University of Pittsburgh’s fetal tissue research exploded onto headlines last fall with physicians going so far as to suggest the institution may have received organs that were extracted from live fetuses. Others speculated that tissue may have come from abortions that violated federal anti-trafficking law, as well as other ethical standards.In the controversy’s wake, Republican state Rep. Natalie Mihalek, a Pitt alum who sits on the university’s board of trustees, announced a purportedly “independent” investigation into the university’s fetal tissue research, stating that “it is vital that these questions are answered surrounding this.” In doing so, she...

WASHINGTON – U.S. House Democrats are pushing back against a Tennessee Republican’s request that Attorney General Hector Balderas consider criminal charges stemming from fetal tissue research at the University of New Mexico, while House Republicans renewed allegations Thursday that fetal tissue researchers and abortion clinics are also breaking federal law. Last month, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., chairwoman of the House Select Committee on Infant Lives, wrote a letter to Balderas asking him to investigate whether the University of New Mexico and an Albuquerque abortion provider broke a state law when they transferred aborted fetuses for research. This week, Democrats on...

I have received a few requests from pro-lifers like Vicki:Can you provide some clarity to the Pepsi/cells from aborted babies controversy.  I cannot sort out whether this is valid or not. Yes and NoBottom line: There are no aborted embryonic or fetal cells in any of PepsiCo’s final products.But: Aborted cells are used in the development of artificial flavor enhancers by biotech company Senomyx, with which PepsiCo signed a four-year, $30 million agreement in 2010 for research and development. No Pepsi products containing Senonymx flavor enhancers should be expected until 2013.Senomyx’s disputed cell line is HEK-293, derived from the kidney...

Georgetown Voice - Cover Issue: 03/04/04 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Georgetown's Doctrine of Medical Research By Shanthi Manian The country's oldest Catholic university has been conducting research on aborted fetal cell lines for several years. What might surprise you is that this research has been sanctioned by several Catholic bioethicists and even Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, leader of the Archdiocese of Washington. While the president of the United States struggles with questions of stem cells and cloning, Georgetown University Medical Center has become embroiled in a 25-year-old debate. Last summer, Debra Vinnedge, the founder of a Catholic organization in Florida, discovered that Georgetown University...

Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- The world's leading medical journal says it will aggressively seek to publish papers from research that defends the use of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR). An editorial published Thursday called the legislation passed by the House of Representatives to ban research involving cloned human embryos "legislative myopia." The pro-life bill, co-sponsored by Reps. Dave Weldon (R-FL) and Bart Stupak (D-MI) also bans human cloning. Jeffrey Drazen, editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine's editors, said the pro-life bill "is shortsighted and has the potential to put many critical future advances in medicine beyond...