New CLI Scholar to Testify at “Pricing of Fetal Tissue” Congressional Hearing

Update: 4/20/2016: Post updated to include a link to Ms. Foster’s full testimony.

On April 20, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives will hold a hearing on “The Pricing of Fetal Tissue” in response to information brought forth by the Center for Medical Progress’ undercover video exposé.

Charlotte Lozier Institute’s new associate scholar Catherine Glenn Foster, J.D. has been invited to testify as an attorney on the federal statutes governing fetal tissue research. Below is a preview of her testimony.

As demonstrated by the evidence presented by this Panel, clinics and procurement companies have been getting away with charging far more than the allowed costs for harvesting, transporting, and warehousing body parts as they wait for customers. In doing so, they have violated both the intent and the letter of 42 U.S.C. § 289g-2, which bars, among other things, the transfer of human fetal tissue “for valuable consideration.”

…

For perhaps we forget that this law is meant to protect the ethical imperative that recognizes the dignity in every human life. In the face of clinical, sanitized language, we may become desensitized. In the abortion clinic, a human baby is called “tissue” or a “fetus.” A head is a “calvarium” or “cal.” The technician who counts baby body parts is a “products of conception” or “POC” worker. And by converting human lives into a bulk commodity, public discussion has been stifled. But we are in fact talking about real and unique human beings whose lives were tragically snuffed out.

*To read the full written testimony, please see HERE.
The hearing webcast will be available at the House Energy and Commerce Committee website here.