UW-Madison to oppose law banning fetal body parts research
An article in Sunday’s Wisconsin State Journal focused on pro-life legislative efforts now that the state budget has been signed into law.
In the article, UW-Madison states it will oppose efforts to ban research using aborted baby parts:
Pro-Life Wisconsin’s top legislative priority is a law that would prohibit the sale and use of any human fetal body part, such as a cell, tissue or organ. [Pro-Life Wisconsin's legislative director Matt Sande] said the law is needed to prevent parts of aborted fetuses from being used in research, which he said has been done at UW-Madison.
UW-Madison and UW Health issued a joint statement in response saying, in part, “Limiting or barring access to legally and ethically obtained research materials would compromise the ability of scientists to find new drugs and therapies to treat serious diseases.”
“It’s a very exciting time for us, with a 100 percent pro-life governor and pro-life majorities in both houses,” he said.
Sande’s group also hopes to repeal a law passed by the last Legislature that requires schools that teach sex education to include age-appropriate information about birth control.
Authored by Representative Andre Jacque (R-Bellevue) and Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), the legislation bans persons from knowingly and for valuable consideration acquiring, receiving, or transferring a fetal body part. It also bans persons from knowingly providing, receiving, or using for experimentation a fetal body part.
Not only does the UW not deny their use of human fetal body parts for research, they provide justification for doing so! Also in the WSJ article, Planned Parenthood does not deny our claim that PPWI received $18 million in state and taxpayer funding in 2010.
There is documented evidence of the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison conducting research on human fetal brain and pancreatic tissue. A 2000 fetal brain cell study conducted by Su-Chun Zhang of the UW-Madison Department of Medical Sciences used immature neural cells from fetal human brain tissue of 15-20 gestation weeks “after elective termination of intrauterine pregnancies” to study neurological disorders including multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. The study acknowledged Dr. Dennis Christenson, a former Madison abortionist, for his “assistance in this project.” Click here for PLW’s legislative memo detailing the UW’s grisly research on human fetal body parts.
In addition to the above study, UW conducted research on mice reconstituted with fetal pancreas and fetal pancreas transplanted into the bodies of diabetic humans.
Federal law prohibits the interstate trafficking of human fetal body parts. Wisconsin’s intrastate commercial activity must have a similar prohibition so that we can guarantee the highest ethical standards of academic research and medical care in our state.
