Testimony of Dr. David Prentice in Support of Arizona Bill to Prohibit Fetal Tissue Trafficking

Update (4/1/2016): On March 24, SB 1474 passed the full Arizona House with bipartisan support along with two other major prolife bills. Arizona Governor Ducey signed them into law on March 31st.

On Wednesday, March 16, 2016, the Arizona House Judiciary Committee panel held a hearing to consider SB 1474, introduced by Sen. Nancy Barto (R-Phoenix) to prohibit fetal tissue trafficking. After the hearing, the panel voted to pass the bill, which will now head to the full House.

Center for Arizona Policy president Cathi Herrod stated that Arizona had a law that was previously thought to ban research using fetal tissue; however, the federal court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck it down due to vague language. This new bill “simply ensures that aborted babies are not harvested or sold in Arizona,” she said.

Charlotte Lozier Institute Vice President and Director of Research, Dr. David Prentice, Ph.D. submitted the following written testimony in support of the legislation.

Testimony Excerpt (notations removed):

“A recent 2009 report emphasizes the instability and danger of fetal tissue transplants.  A patient with Huntington’s disease was recruited into a study (funded by NIH) in which she had fetal brain cells injected into her brain.  She did not improve, and instead developed in her brain a growing mass of tissue, euphemistically termed “graft overgrowth” by the researchers…

Disastrous results for patients are seen not only with fetal tissue but also with fetal stem cells.  In a recent example, a young boy developed tumors on his spine, resulting from fetal stem cells injected into his body…

Beyond cancer, adult stem cells are also showing therapeutic promise for other diseases and conditions where there has previously been no available treatment option.  The published scientific literature now documents therapeutic success in trials of adult stem cells for patients with dozens of other conditions, including heart damage, stroke, sickle cell anemia, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, and juvenile diabetes…

[C]ontinued use of fetal tissue is an outdated science, presents no advantage to medical research, and raises grave ethical concerns.  Noncontroversial, successful alternatives exist to the use of fetal tissue in research.”

 
To read the testimony in full, see HERE.