Experiments on living heads of abortion survivors once funded by tax dollars

Documented cases involving both living abortion survivors as well as aborted children who did not survive reveal that, for years, all taxpayers have funded grisly fetal research. A previous Live Action News report found evidence that as far back as the 1970s, aborted babies were being used for medical research funded by taxpayers. The information was detailed in a GAO document, which reviewed EPA contracts with Automated Medical Services of Ohio, Inc. (AMSO) for the testing of human fetuses for pesticide residues and claims the specimens were collected from abortion facilities and from private physicians committing legal abortions. Read about this in more detail here.

According to a 1977 Defiance Crescent News article, “One EPA official said ‘there was some dispute’ over whether the aborted children to be used in the experiment were considered living.”

A 1971 Albuquerque Journal article reported another instance where taxpayer money funded the equipment used in experiments on abortion survivors:

Dr. Peter Adams of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, described experiments he conducted on fetuses aborted in Helsinki, Finland. Money for the actual research came from private sources, he said. But to the extent that his laboratory developed the research techniques and made equipment available, [National Institutes of Health] NIH money was used, he said. Adams’ experiments involved pumping various fluids through the brain arteries of freshly aborted fetuses to learn more about how the fetal brain gets nourishment from the blood. Such information has potential application to embryology and treatment of premature infants.

When questioned about the ethical nature of these kind of experiments, the article goes on to state how Adams suggested it might be unethical to waste an aborted child and “not use it in research that might benefit the living.” Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead also wrote about this case in 2003, describing Adams’ experiments this way:

Indeed, a mere six months after the decision in Roe v. Wade, Peter A. J. Adams, an associate professor of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, reported to the American Pediatric Research Society on research that he and his associates had conducted on 12 pre-born babies up to 20 weeks old who had survived hysterotomy abortions. Cutting the heads off the tiny babies, these scientists placed tubes in the main arteries feeding their brains. The researchers kept the heads of these babies alive, much as the Russians kept dogs’ heads alive in the 1950s. In response to concerns raised about this “research,” Dr. Adams said, “Once society’s declared a fetus dead, and abrogated its rights, I don’t see any ethical problem… Whose rights are we going to protect, once we’ve decided the fetus won’t live?”

Despite a moratorium put in place in the 1970s, by the 1980s, scientists needed approval from an advisory board before human fetal experimentation could take place, and, if approved, it could be government funded. Then, according to a timeline published by the National Academies Press:

The Health Research Extension Act was passed, reauthorizing the National Institutes of Health. This legislation contained two important additions. First, a three-year moratorium was imposed on issuing waivers for fetal research, so that only research involving minimal risk or for therapeutic purposes would be allowed. Second, it called for the establishment of a Congressional Biomedical Ethics Board, comprised of members of Congress, to appoint and oversee a Biomedical Ethics Advisory Committee (BEAC).

That board was established in 1987. Despite the moratorium, scientists carried out experiments by injecting human fetal parts into mice. They reportedly said that this kind of research was not restricted from receiving federal dollars because the aborted fetal parts were being injected into animals and not humans.

By 1993, the floodgates would be opened. According to a GAO report:

In March 1988, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) imposed a moratorium on the use of federal funds for research projects on therapeutic human fetal tissue transplantation until a panel, appointed by HHS, could study the ethical issues involved. In the fall of 1988, the panel concluded that the use of human fetal tissue in research is acceptable public policy, but the moratorium remained until the President [Bill Clinton] ordered it lifted in January 1993.

Today, according to a July 2015 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, “Federal law permits the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to fund research on new therapies that involve the transplantation of human fetal tissue using tissue derived from an elective or spontaneous abortion, or from a stillbirth. However, human fetal tissue may be used for such purposes only if the following conditions are met:

• The woman must provide her written consent that she is donating the fetal tissue for research, that the donation is being made without any restrictions on who may receive the tissue, and that she has not been informed of the identity of any such recipients.
• The attending physician must declare in writing that, in the case of an induced abortion (1) the woman’s consent for the abortion was obtained prior to requesting or obtaining consent to donate the fetal tissue for research; (2) the timing, method, or procedures used to terminate the pregnancy were not altered in order to obtain the tissue; and (3) the abortion was performed in accordance with applicable state law. In addition, the attending physician must declare that the tissue has been donated with the woman’s consent and that the woman has been fully informed of the physician’s interest, if any, in the research, and of any medical or privacy risks associated with the tissue donation…

As a result, millions of dollars are used each year to conduct fetal research, which, according to the previously mentioned CRS report, involves abortions:

Fetal tissue used in research is obtained from elective abortions. Under certain rare circumstances, fetal tissue may also be obtained from a miscarriage, also called a spontaneous abortion, or following the removal of an ectopic pregnancy, which occurs when an embryo has implanted outside the uterus. Because the timing or recognition of a spontaneous abortion or ectopic pregnancy is unpredictable, and both conditions may result in a serious health emergency for the woman, the fetal tissue collected under these circumstances is often not suitable for research purposes.

A breakdown by the NIH shows the magnitude of the spending of our tax dollars annually:

• 2018 – $81 million
• 2017 – $107 million
• 2016 – $103 million
• 2015 – $80 million
• 2014 – $76 million
• 2013 – $67 million
• 1999 – $17 million
• 1993-1996 – $6 million

Putting the moral and ethical issues related to using the bodies of preborn infants for scientific experiments or research aside for a moment, some experts claim the research is not even producing valid results.

Today, through this “research,” the abortion industry and Planned Parenthood profit from the bodies of babies they abort. Gruesome details of the ghastly way in which fetal body parts are negotiated and obtained were recently exposed by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) in undercover video footage.

One of the most horrific examples came from Holly O’Donnell, former procurement technician for Stem Express, who told CMP that she was instructed to cut “through the face” of a baby whose heart was still beating, in order to procure the brain tissue. She emotionally said, “No, I don’t want to do this.” But then, she did. (start approx. 4:00)

The CMP videos revealed the same callousness toward the preborn child that was exposed in the 1970s experiments on abortion survivors. And, just as in the 1970s, the American public was horrified. Perhaps one day, fetal research will join the ranks of other gruesome human experiments denounced by all of society — experiments like the horrific Tuskegee experiments and the syphilis experiments done in Guatemala, conducted by the late Dr. John C. Cutler.  According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Cutler’s wife, Eliese, was his photographer — and interestingly, she also sat on the board of a local Planned Parenthood. The Cutler couple contributed to abortion organizations such as the Population Council, which is credited for bringing the abortion pill RU-486 into the United States. And let’s not forget the experiments conducted on slaves by James Marion Sims, the so-called “father of modern gynecology,” detailed previously by Live Action News.

During a recent trip to the Dallas Holocaust Museum, I saw displayed artifacts from Jews who were taken to various Nazi concentration camps where their bodies were stripped of all humanity. The Nazis took their teeth, their clothes, possessions, and anything they saw as “valuable,” leaving only their naked bodies to be worked, beaten, starved, and in most cases, murdered.

A promotional video about the museum moved me. In it, a child can be heard stating that before she went to the museum she had no idea that 1.5 million children had been murdered by the Nazis.

“We did not know. We were not there. You were there and you do know,” the child’s voice continues.

In looking at all the carnage that comes from abortion at the expense of government taxpayer dollars, one has to wonder what historians will say when they one day read what has been done in our day through abortion.

Editor’s Note: Read parts one and two of this series on the history of experimentation on abortion survivors.