Baby Parts Not for "Life Saving" Science

A largely horrified public has watched five videos on the selling of aborted babies—sacrificed to the gods of “scientific research.”  The heartless defenders of their dismemberment for sale, claim that it contributes to “life-saving research.”  

Aside from the fact that scientific experimentation on murder victims is immoral, realize also that this is not just about real science.  Aborted babies have been used for such things as testing flavor enhancers for food companies and creating anti-aging cremes.  Developing products such as cosmetics and flavor enhancers are to science as lemon drops and potato chips are to fruits and vegetables.

Flavor Enhancers

In case you missed it, three years ago, Debi Vinnedge, founder and executive director of Children of God for Life, a foundation dedicated to educating the public on prolife issues, called for a boycott of companies that used Senomyx flavor enhancers because they were developed using fetal tissue. Senomyx’s website boasts that their flavor enhancers are: “A Healthier Way to Flavor” and that they have discovered “novel flavor ingredients that boost taste sensations.” 

What they discovered was “key receptors that mediate taste in humans," Vinnedge explained in an interview for this article. “Senomyx doesn’t mention that they used human embryonic kidney cells (HEK 293) from an aborted baby in product testing.”  The name HEK 293 means it came from the 293rd experiment, after 292 other experiments. Vinnedge said that she discovered the situation after a prolife consumer reported it to her. “I thought, it couldn’t be true,” she said, “so I researched it and found out it was true.”  Vinnedge noted that Senomyx uses baby parts in research and development but not in the product themselves.

Debi Vinnedge

When Vinnedge began investigating Senomyx, she found they had 77 patents using aborted fetal cells.  “They named all the other cell lines they could be using but they chose to use fetal cells instead.”  Vinnedge wrote and asked them to stop using cells lines from aborted fetuses.  They refused, so she contacted their customers.  “Cocoa-Cola, Campbell Soup, Kraft, Cadbury Adams—all from the original boycott, ended their contract with no product from Senomyx,” Vinnedge said. “Nestles, however, already had product on the market before we found out about Senomyx. “  She explained that Nestles dropped future contracts but they kept the products already in the marketplace using Senomyx flavors which includes their coffee creamers and Mai soup products.  Thus, Senomyx still gets royalties from them. (Go here for a list of all products on the boycott: www.cogforlife.org/fetalproductsall.pdf .)

Skin Cream From a 14-week Old Boy

When it comes to non-food products, the Food and Drug Administration does not require full disclosure so unless a company openly admits using aborted baby tissue, there’s no way of knowing. Unbelievably, Neocutis Cosmetics proudly announces they used it in the development of their anti-aging cream.

The company’s key trademarked ingredient, “Processed Skin Proteins,” was developed from a 14-week-old boy.   Neocutis states on their website: “A dedicated cell bank was established for developing new skin treatments using a single biopsy of fetal skin.”  Since they claim “no additional fetal biopsies will ever be required,” Neocutis President Mark J. Lemko told Vinnedge in an email,  “We feel we are in complete compliance with the laws of God and the laws of man.”  The cream initially developed to treat dermatology problems but led to a cosmetic line.  Vinnedge said it’s pricey because it’s expensive to keep cell lines refrigerated and in working order. A 1-ounce bottle of Journee Bio-Restorative Day Cream goes for $120 an ounce. 

Pandora’s Box

Regardless of how long ago a cell line was established, it exists only because an unborn baby was given greater value dead than alive.  Nazi Germany also did scientific research using one part of humanity for the benefit of another.  It is thoroughly evil.  By comparison, if a beautiful antique lampshade were discovered to have been made in a German concentration camp with the skin of a Jewish person, no moral person would keep it and say, “Well, that was a long time ago.”

In a recent interview for the National Catholic Register, Theresa Deisher, Ph.D explained that at the core of the problem is the belief that using fetal material is necessary for research. “Once we turn a blind eye to the baby being a person or say we are only going to do it once, the flood gates are opened.” 

Dr. Theresa Deisher

Deisher holds a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Physiology from Stanford University and worked for over 20 years in the commercial biomedical industry. As respect for the unborn awakened in her, she stopped working for biomedical research companies where experimenting on tissue from aborted babies is excused as science. She formed the two companies of Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute and AVM Biotechnology; both have a mission to end the use of aborted babies in biomedical research and vaccine development.  

Deisher described the use of the first tissue from an aborted baby as the opening of Pandora’s box that won’t close now. “People don’t want to walk the hard walk or to look like they are not progressive,” she said. “But what is progressive about taking a baby and chopping it up to make vaccines or do research?” 

Push Back

Now, Planned Parenthood is spending some of their ill-gotten money on a top PR firm that is subtly threatening the media not to cover this story.  StemExpress, a middleman harvesting company of baby parts for “research,” and the National Abortion Federation, have filed an injunction to block any further videos being released.  

David Daleiden, founder of Center for Medical Progress and lead investigator in the undercover videos, issued this statement:

StemExpress, a for-profit company partnered with over 30 abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood, to harvest and sell aborted baby parts and provide a “financial benefit” to Planned Parenthood clinics, is attempting to use meritless litigation to cover-up this illegal baby parts trade, suppress free speech, and silence the citizen press reporting on issues of burning concern to the American public. They are not succeeding—their initial petition was rejected by the court, and their second petition was eviscerated to a narrow and contingent order about an alleged recording pending CMP’s opportunity to respond. The Center for Medical Progress follows all applicable laws in the course of our investigative journalism work and will contest all attempts from Planned Parenthood and their allies to silence our First Amendment rights and suppress investigative journalism.  

The rest of us don’t actually want to watch the videos. We simply must.  If we are against any of it, we must be against all of it. And we must do what we can to stop it or innocent blood is on our hands too.