Fetal body parts industry flourishes in United States

Some U.S, companies have found a loophole in the federal law that prohibits the sale of body parts. They instead provide whole or dismembered aborted fetuses to medical researchers in exchange for a "service" fee. These companies, lease "cutting rooms" inside abortion clinics to chop, freeze and ship fetal remains to doctors, academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies.

Life Dynamics, a pro-life group based in Denton, Tex., became a clearing house for information about these businesses after it was approached by a disillusioned worker within the industry "The first one came to us," said Life Dynamics President Mark Crutcher, "the rest we recruited. None of them are pro-life, but they object to this practice."

Information provided by Life Dynamics became the basis for an amendment sponsored by Sen. Bob Smith (R.-N.H.) and a resolution offered by Rep. Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.). Smith's amendment, which failed as an attachment to the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, would have required full public disclousre of the extent and nature of the business. Tancredo@s bill (HR 350) calls on Congress to have hearings and investigate the practice. Smith and Tancredo, are convinced the information unearthed by Life Dynamics is credible.

Crutcher explained how the loophole works. The body parts company pays an abortion clinic "a site fee," which is "rental on the space" that a body parts company employee occupies within the clinic. Crutcher said the employee can then explain, "I did not pay you for fetal tissue or parts. Then I say to researchers that I will donate parts to you. But I will have to charge you reasonable costs for retrieval, which federal law allows. As long as the retrieval fees are higher than the site fee, I make a profit."

Crutcher added, "I don't think it's illegal. I think they've found a way of circumventing the law,"

In proposing his amendment on the Senate floor October 21, Smith used a "Fees for Services Schedule" from a Colorado-based company called Opening Lines that listed greatly varying prices for different body parts. "Livers (>8 weeks)" were $125, but "Gonads" were $550. "Which is easier to harvest?" asked Crutcher rhetorically. An "Intact Embryonic Cadaver(>8 weeks)" is $600. "Why would there be a retrieval fee?" Crutcher asked. "Why not just the cost of shipping?" At the bottom of the fee schedule it says: "Prices in effect through Dec. 31, 1999

A spokesman for Opening Lines, who was familiar with Smith's floor speech, confirmed to HumAN EVENTs that this was indeed the company's price list.

"We understand that two or three businesses have taken advantage of researchers' interest in the use of fetal tissue in experiments to set themselves up as middlemen in obtaining and shipping parts from aborted babies for profit," wrote

Tancredo in a letter to Commerce Chairman Tom Bliley (R.Va.) that was cosigned by Representatives Chris Smith (R.NJ.) and Joe Pitts (R.-Pa-). "[01f importance to federal lawmakers are questions of whether any researchers who receive federal grants or benefits are among those acquiring these baby parts'"

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), which administers most federal grants for medical research and which conducts a great amount of research on its own, declined to tell HumAN EvF_NTs how fetal tissue is acquired for experimentation. A search of the NIH's computer database revealed at least 40 current grantees who use tissue from dead fetuses in their research, and hundreds who have used it in the past.

Liver, Spleen, Colon, Legs

At least one source funded by the NIH itself provides fetal tissue to researchers. A notice on the NIH's website says, "NIH GUIDE, Volume 23, Number 10, March 11, 1994.... Human embryonic and fetal tissues are available from the Central Laboratory for Human Embryology at the University of Washington. The laboratory, which is supported by the National Institutes of Health, can supply tissue from normal or abnormal embryos and fetuses of desired gestational ages between 40 days and term.

"Specimens are obtained within minutes of passage and tissues are aseptically identified, staged and immediately processed according to the requirements of individual investigators. Presently, processing methods include immediate fixation, snap fixation, snap freezing in liquid nitrogen, and placement in balanced salt solutions or media designated and/or supplied by investigators. Specimens are shipped by overnight express, arriving the day following procurement."

Here is how the fetal parts trade works:

Women who come to a clinic for an abortion are asked to sign a document allowing the clinic to donate their aborted children to research. No fetus may be used without permission.

The more intact the fetus, and the more fully formed, said both Smith and Tancredo, the more valuable it is. Regardless of the method of death, the dead fetus is taken to the cutting room leased by the parts company where a technician slices up the bodies to separate parts: liver, spleen, colon, legs, arms, eyes, or whatever fits the orders sent to the company by medical researchers. Sometimes whole cadavers are shipped. The parts must be harvested and frozen within ten minutes, or their quality begins to degrade.