Source: http://www.lifenews.com/2015/08/07/planned-parenthood-has-been-selling-body-parts-from-aborted-babies-for-at-least-15-years/
NATIONAL MATTHEW BALAN AUG 7, 2015
| 3:17PM WASHINGTON, DC
Planned Parenthood and its defenders have constantly
played up that the recent undercover videos from
the Center for Medical Progress were “highly-edited,” and that producers are
“not journalists,” but “violent
extremists.”
However, one of the Big Three networks aired their own segment on biomedical
firms possibly breaking the law to obtain organs from unborn babies.
In 2000, Chris Wallace, then with ABC, revealed on
20/20 that a “hidden camera investigation has found a thriving industry, in
which aborted fetuses women donate to help medical research are being marketed
for hundreds – even thousands of dollars.”
The main target of the ABC investigation, Dr. Miles
Jones, “over lobster bisque and roast duck…explained the business of selling
human fetuses” – echoing the first Center
for Medical Progress video,
where Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical service, Dr. Deborah
Nucatola, ate a salad and sipped on wine while discussed the sale of fetal body
parts. The network’s report also included a clip from the then-president of the
abortion organization, Gloria Feldt, who contended that businesses such as Dr.
Jones’s were “totally inappropriate. Where there is wrongdoing, it should be
prosecuted; and people who are doing that kind of thing should be brought to
justice.”
It should be pointed out that back in 2000, National Right to Life reported that Planned Parenthood actually “supported the
harvesting of baby parts for research and had at least one clinic that helped
supply aborted babies to firms featured in Wallace’s 20/20 report” – a detail
that the Federalist’s Denise C. McAllister pointed out in a July 15, 2015
item. A July 2008 report by CNS
News (a division of
the Media Research Center) confirmed that Dr. Jones’s firm “held a contract
with Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri to dispose of the clinic’s
fetal tissue.”
Wallace, who is now with Fox News (and mentioned his
2000 report on the July 19, 2015
edition of Fox News
Sunday), began his segment with the account of Cindy Smith, who donated the
bodies of her unborn twins after they were gravely affected by her radiation
treatment for cancer. The bodies ended up in the hands of Dr. Jones, who “would
be making money off her twins.”
The correspondent ran several extended clips from
their hidden camera footage, where two producers met up with Dr. Jones over
dinner. The pathologist, who ultimately went to prison
for tax evasion and
died in 2013, revealed that average fetal tissue sample or organ cost his firm,
Opening Lines, “just $50, plus overhead – but that he charges an average of
$250. The law only talks about recovering costs. But on a single fetus, Jones
said he can make $2,500.”
Wallace also turned to bioethicist
Arthur Caplan, who
viewed the undercover footage and denounced Dr. Jones’s “trading in body
parts.” Caplan underlined that “it’s flat-out buying and selling, It’s flat-out
profiteering. It’s flat-out saying, ‘I’m going to charge you whatever you’re
going to pay me.'”
At one point in the footage, Dr. Jones also blatantly
referred to his operation as a “golden goose,” adding that “you can certainly
keep it well-fed, and it will lay lots of eggs for you.” Caplan blasted the
physician for being “blatant – ‘I’m going to get the maximum value out of
mining a fetus’…it’s shocking.”
Besides the hidden camera video, the journalist featured
two whistleblowers: Dean Alberty, who used to work for Opening Lines and the
Anatomic Gift Foundation (AGF), another firm that obtained organs from aborted
babies (and later served as an informant for the pro-life group Life Dynamics);
and Ross Capps, who also worked for AGF. Alberty revealed that “abortions were
altered to get better tissue” – something that Planned Parenthood officials also admitted
to in the Center for
Medical Progress videos. He cited how a “clinic in Overland Park, Kansas
normally did early abortions with a suction machine. But when the fetus was
being donated….[a] special syringe was used – which experts say puts women
through longer, more uncomfortable abortions.”
Capps corroborated Alberty’s account by confirming
that “women donating fetuses were given different abortions,” and that AGF even
supplied the “special” syringes for the procedure. Wallace interviewed James
Bartly of AGF, who admitted that his firm did indeed provide the syringes, but
punted on admitting that the abortion procedures were altered to preserve the
babies’ organs and/or tissues.
The full transcript of Chris Wallace’s report from the
March 8, 2000 edition of ABC’s 20/20:
CONNIE CHUNG: Now, a story we guarantee most of you
have never heard before. The subject is highly charged and controversial.
Behind the scenes of some promising medical research, big money is being made
from the sale of fetal body parts.
Chief correspondent Chris Wallace has been
investigating this story. Chris?
CHRIS WALLACE: Connie, our hidden camera investigation
has found evidence that some businessmen are trafficking in fetuses. One has
even put out a price list. And there are claims that some are selling fetuses
that women have not even given for research. Here’s what can happen, when
something that is supposed to be used to spur medical breakthroughs, is used
instead to make money.
WALLACE (voice-over) It’s a moment too painful to
imagine: after getting radiation treatments for cancer, Cindy Smith – a mother
of five – learned she was pregnant with twins.
CINDY SMITH: They basically told me that my children
were dying inside me; that I was the only thing keeping them living.
WALLACE: Cindy decided to end her pregnancy. She says
her only comfort came from signing this consent form – giving the fetuses to
medical researchers looking into cures for terrible diseases.
SMITH: What I wanted to do was – was make something
positive out of a horrible situation.
WALLACE: What she didn’t know is that this man would
be making money off her twins.
DR. MILES JONES, OPENING LINES: If you have a guy
that’s desperate for – let’s say, a heart – then he’ll pay you whatever you
ask.
WALLACE: His name is Dr. Miles Jones, and he says he
can make big bucks selling human fetuses to researchers.
JONES: Let’s say someone needs feet. Feet are real
common. They’re – they’re not hard to get.
WALLACE: A 20/20 hidden camera investigation has found
a thriving industry, in which aborted fetuses women donate to help medical
research are being marketed for hundreds – even thousands of dollars.
We showed what we found undercover to Arthur Caplan,
director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics.
ARTHUR CAPLAN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: That’s
trading in body parts. There’s no doubt about it.
WALLACE (on-camera): Turning human fetuses into a
commodity?
CAPLAN: Into a product.
WALLACE (voice-over): There’s a demand for fetal
tissue, because doctors believe it may be the key to medical breakthroughs –
cures for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease; diabetes and other illnesses.
Some researchers use fetal cells; others need whole organs or limbs.
WALLCE (on-camera): But no one on either side of the
abortion debate wants fetal research to become an incentive for abortions – so
laws have been passed to draw a clear line. A woman must decide to have an
abortion before she’s approached to donate the fetus; abortions can’t be
altered to get better specimens; and above all, tissue can’t be sold for
profit. Despite all that, some businessmen have slipped in and turned human
fetuses into dollars.
DEAN ALBERTY: This is purely for profit. Everything
was about money.
WALLACE: Dean Alberty worked for two companies that
acted as middle men – getting the fetuses from abortion clinics and shipping
tissue to researchers.
ALBERTY: When I got the fetus, I’d already have a
checklist telling me what specific organs they were looking for.
WALLACE: The law allows tissue companies to recover their
costs. This government agency charges a hundred dollars per shipment. But take
a look at what one private company is demanding: Opening Lines put out this
price list – $325 for a spinal cord; $550 for a reproductive organ; $999 for a
brain. Alberty says he helped put together the price list.
WALLACE (on-camera): Is there any way to justify these
prices?
ALBERTY: No, there is not.
WALLACE: So what does this price represent?
ALBERTY: That represents greed.
WALLACE (voice-over): Who runs Opening Lines? Dr.
Miles Jones, the Missouri pathologist whose company handled Cindy’s fetuses.
Last year, Jones not only mailed out the price list, but also this brochure.
WALLACE (on-camera): ‘Fresh fetal tissue harvested and
shipped to your specifications where and when you need it.’
ALBERTY: That’s correct.
DR. JONES: Pleased to meet you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE PRODUCER: Nice to meet you.
WALLACE (voice-over): We wanted to find out for
ourselves how these companies do business. So, posing as a prospective
investor, a 20/20 producer met with Dr. Jones, who wanted to talk over dinner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE PRODUCER: What does a brain go for?
What does a kidney or liver go for?
DR. JONES: It’s market force. It’s, what can you sell
it for?
WALLACE: Over lobster bisque and roast duck, Dr. Jones
explained the business of selling human fetuses.
DR. JONES: We had projections of $50,000 a week. And
you know, some weeks you can hit that, and some weeks you can’t. It’s just a
matter of being able to match supply and demand.
WALLACE: Dr. Jones said the average specimen costs him
just $50, plus overhead – but that he charges an average of $250. The law only
talks about recovering costs. But on a single fetus, Jones said he can make
$2,500.
DR. JONES: That one fetus – the cost of procuring it
is the same – whether you get one kidney or you get two kidneys; a lung; a
brain; a heart. It’s the same cost that you’ve put into it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE PRODUCER: But you keep charging?
DR. JONES: Each researcher gets charged.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE PRODUCER: And each time, that’s just
money in the bank?
DR. JONES: Mmm-hmm.
CAPLAN: It’s flat-out buying and selling, It’s
flat-out profiteering. It’s flat-out saying, ‘I’m going to charge you whatever
you’re going to pay me.’
DR. JONES: You can’t kill the golden goose. But you
can certainly keep it well-fed, and it will lay lots of eggs for you.
WALLACE (on-camera): A human fetus as a ‘golden
goose.’ I know you’ve been studying this business a long time, but does that shock
even you?
CAPLAN: That kind of blatant – ‘I’m going to get the
maximum value out of mining a fetus,’ is – is – it’s shocking.
SMITH: Just from a human standpoint, that – that’s
horrific.
WALLACE (voice-over): When we told Cindy Smith about
Dr. Jones, she also was upset.
SMITH: I did not donate that thinking ever that
someone was going to profit. And that just really bothers me, because that’s
not what I intended at all.
WALLACE: Alberty says some tissue companies went even
further to boost their revenue. He says both companies he worked for – Opening
Lines; and this firm, Anatomic Gift Foundation, or AGF – pressured him to get
as much tissue as possible; and at times, even told him to take it from fetuses
women had not donated for research.
ALBERTY: Miles told me, if they’re not looking;
they’re not looking. Why don’t you grab that pancreas? Even though it wasn’t
consented for.
WALLACE (on-camera): And did you do it?
ALBERTY: Yes, I did.
WALLACE (voice-over): That’s not all. Alberty alleges
that abortions were altered to get better tissue. He says this clinic in
Overland Park, Kansas normally did early abortions with a suction machine. But
when the fetus was being donated, he says this special syringe was used – which
experts say puts women through longer, more uncomfortable abortions. Where did
the clinic get the syringes?
WALLACE (off-camera): AGF was supplying these special
syringes to the clinics?
ROSS CAPPS: That’s correct.
WALLACE (voice-over): Ross Capps also worked for AGF.
He and nurses, who worked at the clinic, confirm that women donating fetuses
were given different abortions.
WALLACE (on-camera): If the woman didn’t consent, they
wouldn’t use the special syringe?
CAPPS: No. They only used the special syringe if they
knew I wanted the specimen.
WALLACE (voice-over): Again, the law says abortions
can’t be altered to get tissue. Alberty – who says he was originally pro-choice
– was finally so disturbed by what he saw that he contacted Life Dynamics, a
Texas pro-life group that paid him $10,000 to be an informant, while he
continued to work in the tissue business. But Alberty denies making up stories
to push a political agenda.
WALLACE (on-camera): Why should people believe you?
Why shouldn’t we believe that there are just some things that you’ve said that
are part of this movement?
ALBERTY: I will stand behind my words until I die. I
will go in front of Congress, if I have to, and testify under oath.
WALLACE (voice-over): But Alberty’s allegations are
only part of the story. Some of the most troubling evidence we found came from
our undercover conversation with Dr. Jones. Here he explains how easy it is to
talk a woman into donating a fetus.
JONES: You can do something that’s got all the legal
mumbo-jumbo in it, and they’ll sign it anyway. If you have someone trained to
ask properly, you can get 80 – 90-percent consent rates.
WALLACE: His dream, he said, is to run his own clinic
in Mexico, where he could get a greater supply of fetal tissue by offering
cheaper abortions.
DR. JONES: If you can control the flow, it’s probably
the equivalent of the invention of the assembly line.
WALLACE: We showed Dr. Jones’ comments to Congressman
Thomas Bliley, chairman of the House Commerce Committee.
REP. THOMAS BLILEY: Terrible – just absolutely
terrible.
WALLACE: After hearing allegations of the illegal
activity, Bliley’s committee is now investigating four companies – and he says
has found evidence that tissue is being sold for profit.
BLILEY: We are interested that the people who do this
recover their legitimate costs. It appears that it’s more than that – that it
comes down to trafficking in tissue parts – in body parts.
WALLACE: Bliley is pro-life, but even the most ardent
pro-choice advocates – like Planned Parenthood president, Gloria Feldt – are
disturbed by what we found.
GLORIA FELDT, PRESIDENT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD: It seems
inappropriate – totally inappropriate. Where there is wrongdoing, it should be
prosecuted; and people who are doing that kind of – of thing should be – should
be brought to justice.
WALLACE: We wanted to talk with some of these
fetal tissue businessmen. When we called Dr. Jones for an interview, he hung up
on us. But James Bartsly of AGF said his non-profit company recently got out of
the business. He maintained his fees, which were lower than Jones’, were
reasonable, and that AGF never asked anyone to take tissue without consent. And
he suggested Alberty is angry because AGF sued him over a business dispute.
WALLACE (on-camera): Did AGF ever encourage doctors to
alter the way they did abortions to get specimens?
JAMES BARTSLY, ANATOMIC GIFT FOUNDATION: No –
absolutely not. First of all, that would be illegal.
WALLACE (voice-over): But wasn’t AGF supplying those
special syringes to get better tissue?
BARTSLY: Yeah. That’s – that’s – that’s – that’s the
logical conclusion that you would draw. I don’t believe that was altering the
abortion technique.
WALLACE (on-camera): Doesn’t this special syringe add
as much as 15 minutes to the length of the abortion?
BARTSLY: I don’t know.
WALLACE: Oh, sure you did.
BARTSLY: In some cases – perhaps. It takes longer.
WALLACE (voice-over): Bartsly later sent us this
letter – saying the Kansas clinic already used syringes, and that AGF provided
special ones just to keep tissue sterile. The clinic finally severed its ties
with AGF; and later, Opening Lines. But that came too late for Cindy Smith. All
she thinks about is what happened to her twins.
SMITH: It’s just wrong for someone to be making money
off the dead. I didn’t want somebody to profit off of my heartache. It makes me
almost feel like the one good thing I did really wasn’t that good after all.
WALLACE (on-camera): Tomorrow, a congressional
subcommittee will hold a hearing on fetal tissue trafficking. And Dean Alberty,
the whistleblower from inside the business, will be the star witness. As for
Dr. Miles Jones, he’s been subpoenaed to testify, but has not responded.
Investigators say if he fails to show up, Jones could be held in contempt of
Congress. Charlie?
CHARLES GIBSON: Chris, if there are laws on the books
on this subject, why is it still going on? Why hasn’t something been done?
WALLACE: It’s a question we kept asking in this
investigation. We couldn’t find anyone in the federal government enforcing
those laws – which is why tomorrow’s hearing is such an important first step.
GIBSON: All right, Chris Wallace thank you very much.
LifeNews.com Note: Matthew Balan is a news analyst at
Media Research Center. He graduated from the University of Delaware in 2003,
and worked for the Heritage Foundation from 2003 until 2006, and for Human
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