Row over fetal tissue could chill research
Scientists wary of uproar over Planned Parenthood
The acrimonious political debate over accusations that Planned Parenthood illegally profits from the sale of aborted fetus organs for medical research could put a chill on some medical research and threaten the development of new treatments for diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, researchers say.
Although reliance on stem cells derived from fetal tissue is waning as new technologies reduce the need for human specimens, medical experts say the cells still contribute to a valuable portion of research. But scientists fear the controversy could reduce the availability of tissue.
“Does it hurt the practice of science? Maybe,” said Enal Razvi, who studies the stem cell
market as managing director of Select Biosciences, a life sciences consulting firm in San Francisco. “Will it derail science? Most likely not. But it may slow things down.”
Abortion foes in Congress are threatening a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding as Wednesday’s deadline for a must-pass government-wide funding bill approaches. But Republican leaders are working to avoid it, and House Speaker John Boehner’s surprise resignation Friday frees him to turn to Democrats if necessary for votes to pass a temporary spending bill that retains funding for Planned Parenthood.
Key to vaccines
Stem cells derived from embryos or fetal tissue have special properties in helping researchers gain understanding of how disease develops in the body. The cells have helped create the vaccines for measles, polio, chicken pox and other diseases.
But controversies, such as the current one, arise over whether the cells are taken in the earliest stages — typically unused embryos from in vitro fertilization or IVF treatments — or from more developed fetal tissue donated from abortions.
“No one wants to talk about this,” said Kevin McCormack, spokesman for the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine in San Francisco, which funds stem cell research but does not do any direct research. “There’s a fear among a lot of researchers that they’re going to get drawn into this quagmire.”
It is unclear exactly how much stem cell research involves material derived from aborted fetuses, but fetal tissue has been used since the 1930s. In more recent years, the tissue has been vital in advancing the understanding of Huntington’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, blindness and spinal cord injuries.
Scientists say the shift away from human fetal stem cells to new technologies will take time, and the need may never be completely eliminated.
Research centers obtain the materials directly from hospitals and clinics, or through procurement companies. Federal law permits such transactions but is clear that human tissue must be donated, and no one can profit from providing the specimens for research.
The law also allows for those involved with the procurement of the tissue to recoup “reasonable costs” associated with quality control, processing, transportation, preservation and storage of the materials, according to the National Institutes of Health, which spent about $76 million on research involving human fetal tissue in 2014.
The current controversy emerged after an antiabortion group, the Center for Medical Progress in Southern California, released videos claiming to show Planned Parenthood officials discussing how the organization profits from the sale of specific organs and other materials from aborted fetuses. Planned Parenthood officials deny those claims.
While there may be some gray areas around Planned Parenthood’s procurement costs, there doesn’t appear to be a smoking gun, said one medical ethicist.
‘No evidence’ of crime
“There’s no evidence of any illegality on the tapes,” said David Magnus, director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. “What I think bothers people is not the possibility of illegality ... but what looks like haggling over ... money for fetal tissue and a certain casualness, which some people see as a lack of respect for the fetus.”
Officials from the Center for Medical Progress did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The videos first surfaced over the summer, and the Sept. 16 Republican presidential debate put them back in the news when candidate Carly Fiorina made what has become a widely discredited claim of seeing a “fully formed fetus” in the videos, “its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.” The brinkmanship in Congress over
Planned Parenthood funding has kept the issue in the spotlight.
Local Planned Parenthood affiliates, including Northern California, which counts San Francisco among the 20 counties it serves, and Mar Monte which covers 29 counties, including Alameda, Santa Clara and 13 others in Northern Nevada, were featured in the videos. Planned Parenthood officials have said the organization’s fetal-tissue-donation program operates primarily in California and Washington state.
“Many women who have opted to terminate a pregnancy actually like to donate their tissue because they feel it’s a beneficial thing to contribute to research for medical science,” said Beth Parker, chief legal counsel of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California.
As a result of the video controversy, the Northern California and Mar Monte affiliates have both stopped their donation programs after losing contracts with the company — StemExpress, a 30employee firm in Placerville (El Dorado County) featured in the secretly recorded videos — that processed the specimens.
Breaks off ties
StemExpress officials said they valued the relationship with Planned Parenthood, but it couldn’t continue with the organization because of the heated nature of the issue.
“The company has relationships with other independent clinics and hospitals and continues to supply fetal tissue and blood and other products to medical researchers,” said Beau Phillips, a spokesman for the firm.
StemExpress is one of three California companies — socalled middlemen that process various types of tissue and fill orders — that have become subject to congressional inquiries into whether any laws have been violated. The others are Advanced Bioscience Resources, an Alameda nonprofit also highlighted in the videos, and Novogenix in Los Angeles.
“We are sensitive to the intense scrutiny surrounding this issue, including the congressional inquiries under way,” Advanced Bioscience Resource officials said in a statement forwarded by the company’s attorneys. “Consistent with our mission and ethical standards, we are fully cooperating with these inquiries.”
Novogenix did not respond to requests for comment.
Legal fight
The National Abortion Federation, which represents abortion providers, has taken legal action against the Center for Medical Progress, accusing the group of violating the law by surreptitiously making the videos after signing confidentiality agreements to attend meetings where the videos were taken.
Planned Parenthood of California had not decided whether to take the center to court over the videos, which Parker said were made in violation of state law. The state attorney general is also investigating the matter.
Meanwhile, Razvi, whose firm, Select Biosciences, is not directly involved with research that uses human material, said the debate over how stem cells are obtained will encourage further efforts to find alternatives, whether that be stem cells derived from human fat, bone marrow or other less-controversial sources.
“This is a broader question of being less dependent on tissue,” he said. “The idea is to get away from animal testing and to get away from the human material, but it doesn’t happen overnight.”