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This
Op-ed ran in the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News on Friday, November
19, 1999.
EXTREMISTS TRAFFICKING IN FETAL REMAINS
By Lynn M. Morgan
In the early 1900s, tens
of thousands of dead human embryos, fetuses, and infants were
collected by hospitals and universities for research purposes.
The remains and tiny bodies were collected by the scores, retrieved
from miscarriage, induced abortion, surgery, and autopsy. They
were shipped across state lines and national borders, dissected,
dismembered, eviscerated, and sliced into sections for scientific
research. It sounds ghoulish today, but results of this research
led to better prenatal care and medical treatments for diseases
of pregnancy and infancy. The results also taught the public about
fetal development, which led, perhaps ironically, to calls for
restricting such research in the future.
Laws against fetal tissue research and trafficking in fetal body
parts are now tougher and more effective than ever in this country's
history. Yet on Tuesday [November 9], the House of Representatives
passed a resolution [HR 350] to investigate alleged trafficking
in fetal body parts. Its sponsors - Thomas Tancredo (R-CO), Joseph
Pitts (R-PA), and Chris Smith (R-NJ) - allege that companies are
buying fetal tissue and organs from abortion clinics to sell them
to researchers for profit.
The legislators have allowed themselves to be used as pawns in
a crude ploy. All the information they cited was provided by an
anti-abortion outfit called Life Dynamics, based in Denton, Texas.
Founded in 1992 by Mark Crutcher, Life Dynamics trains anti-abortion
activists and devises new strategies to turn the public against
abortion. Its latest tactic is outlined in its just-released pamphlet,
"Baby Parts Marketing." This sensationalist tract describes a
litany of fetuses allegedly dissected alive and sold in pieces
to a secret research industry. But none of the allegations can
be substantiated. Why did the one technician interviewed, identified
only by a pseudonym, tell her story to Life Dynamics but not to
the mainstream media? "Baby Parts Marketing" named two companies
allegedly engaged in illegal trafficking, but both had packed
up and disconnected their phones before reporters or legislators
could talk to them. The evidence is shaky at best, yet the House
voted to spend taxpayer money on a thorough investigation.
Even if Life Dynamics could substantiate its claims, the sale
of fetal tissue is already prohibited under the 1993 NIH Revitalization
Act and the National Organ Transplant Act. The proper response
to violations would be to prosecute the offenders rather than
to hold hearings. Life Dynamics would obviously prefer to have
the House hold hearings, which will give them a public platform
for their lurid propaganda. Under these circumstances, it is appropriate
to ask who is exploiting dead fetuses?
Last year the San Bernardino County Coroner in California released
the remains of 54 aborted fetuses to a Christian pro-life group.
The group named each fetus and, with television cameras rolling,
paraded 54 little white caskets to the cemetery for burial. The
Coroner had been holding the fetuses for a year, as evidence in
a case against the truck driver who had dumped them illegally
in a field. The Coroner knew that fetal remains are classified
as medical waste, for which incineration is the only legal means
of disposal. Yet he was willing to exploit these dead bodies,
irrespective of the families' wishes, so that he could pull off
an anti-abortion publicity stunt.
Exploitation of fetal remains has become a standard tactic for
anti-abortion activists. During the Democratic Convention in 1992,
Harley David Belew presented a dead fetus to Bill Clinton. Activists
have thrust dead fetuses at women during clinic protests, pulled
them out as evidence in the courtroom, and thrown them at politicians
on the campaign trail. The extremist Pro-Life Action League in
Chicago has conducted "body finds," swiping fetal remains from
pathology labs and sending them to abortion groups around the
country for well-publicized burials. Who, we might ask, is engaging
in trafficking of fetal remains?
The disposition of fetal remains and body parts is already strictly
regulated by Federal law. Violators are subject to criminal penalties.
By passing HR 350, the House has voted to investigate the wrong
issue. They disregarded the consensus achieved by the scientists,
ethicists, and elected officials who wrote the laws, and their
actions insure that anti-abortion zealots will be allowed to continue
exploiting fetal remains for propaganda purposes.
Lynn M. Morgan is Professor of Anthropology at Mount Holyoke College
and editor of Fetal Subjects, Feminist Positions (University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1999).
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