NCER Position Statement on Use of Fetal Tissue in Research

NCER POSITION ON USE OF FETAL TISSUE IN RESEARCH

Position Statement

SUMMARY 

The Center for Medical Progress videos showing Planned Parenthood harvesting and allegedly selling organs and body parts from aborted human beings prompts NCER to restate our principles about the unethical nature of fetal tissue research.  The following are some of the key principles contained in NCER’s longstanding Position Paper on Aborted Fetal Tissue.

• Human embryos and fetuses are human beings in their earliest stages of development.

• Every human being has a right to life and abortion constitutes the deliberate destruction of a prenatal human being.

• Fetal tissue research from induced abortions treats the unborn child as an object valued only for its parts.

• Research involving human subjects requires that proxy consent can be given only if the research does not harm the subject.  The prenatal human being who will be destroyed by the abortion cannot give consent.  Nor can the mother of the unborn child rightfully give consent: she cannot authorize the intentional destruction of an innocent human being and claim at the same time to represent the best interests of her unborn child by then donating the tissue to research.

NCER supports and encourages investigation into the serious charges of illegal trafficking of human body parts and organs as well as the illegal manipulation of surgical procedures for the purpose of harvesting fetal body parts.