The Internet’s buzzing about fetal tissue research these days, but the very companies and investigators who conduct such work aren’t talking.
After Congress made it legal to use aborted fetuses for medical research more than two decades ago, the topic sat in relative obscurity until last month, when an anti-abortion group began releasing videos showing top Planned Parenthood officials discussing how some clinics provide biomedical companies with aborted fetal body parts.
Web searches for “fetal tissue” and related phrases skyrocketed as the videos generated a torrent of hotly charged disputes over whether Planned Parenthood profited from the donations illegally and whether the women’s health and abortion provider should be stripped of federal funds.
Fetal tissue has led to the development of dozens of vaccines and other treatments for vision loss or neurological disorders — and scientists at dozens of institutions around the country still order it from biomedical companies and human tissue banks. Most recently, fetal tissue was integral to developing a promising Ebola vaccine.
Yet when asked about it, the research world still appears hesitant to talk about fetal tissue now that it’s front-and-center on the political stage.
“The people who are actually doing the research have no desire to talk to anyone right now,” said Dr. Jacob Appel, a bioethicist based at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
Neither StemExpress nor Novogenix — two California-based companies known to contract with Planned Parenthood clinics for aborted fetal tissue — responded to multiple requests for comment.
It took two days for StemExpress, which was a particular focus in one of the anti-abortion videos, to post a defense online after the first video was released on July 14 by the Center for Medical Progress. The company wrote that it’s proud of the role it plays in medical breakthroughs and said it prides itself on complying with the law.
After several other videos were released, the company posted a second statement this month, saying it has never “requested nor received an intact fetus.” Neither statement specifically addressed fetal tissue research.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote last week to Novogenix and StemExpress, along with a third company called Advanced Bioscience Resources, seeking details about practices and procedures relating to donation, collection and charges for fetal tissue.
Mayo Clinic, one of the foremost research hospitals in the U.S. that is typically eager to supply information about endeavors at its institution, did not respond to an inquiry about the use of fetal tissue research.
“Thank you for reaching out to Mayo Clinic, but we are going to pass on this one,” spokeswoman Kelley Luckstein wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner.
Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University, said he’s disappointed at researchers’ apparent reticence to discuss an area of scientific inquiry that’s neither illegal nor, as he believes, unethical. The political controversy is keeping them at bay, he said.
“I’m a little disappointed that the people who do it haven’t said one word about it since the controversy,” Caplan said. “They’re not because they’re hiding.”
“They’re going to look at it and say there’s no win for me, nope,” he added.
Bill Leinweber, president of the National Disease Research Interchange, did speak about how his organization occasionally provides fetal tissue to researchers. He said the price his group charges researchers for fetal tissue varies, depending on how big of a sample is requested, the medium it’s transported in and how quickly it needs to be shipped, so he wouldn’t provide any specific cost estimates.
But the interchange, which is partially funded by the National Institutes of Health, isn’t a major supplier of fetal tissue and obtains the tissue only from miscarried pregnancies, not through elective abortions, Leinweber said. He said he wasn’t surprised that bigger suppliers don’t want to discuss their work at the moment.
“Probably because it’s so volatile right now,” Leinweber said. “It’s a shame because [fetal tissue is] so important scientifically.”
Work involving fetal tissue comprises just a sliver of the research grants NIH hands out each year, totaling $76 million, or 0.2 percent of the agency’s total budget. There’s no association specifically dedicated to fetal tissue research. The American Association of Tissue Banks does not accredit institutions that handle fetal tissue, underscoring the research area’s relative obscurity.
“I’ve been here 13 or 14 years … yesterday I spent the most time I ever spent on this issue,” Kevin Wilson, director of public policy for the American Society for Cell Biology, told the Examiner the week the first video was released.
Yet experts say that shouldn’t discredit the role fetal tissue has played in developing all sorts of treatments to serious ailments.
“I’m not saying it’s central, but it’s an important area,” said John Robertson, a bioethicist and legal scholar at the University of Texas.
