Yesterday, Colorado State University (CSU) officially denied purchasing aborted baby body parts for research after LifeNews exposed CSU via a shipping order from the university to StemExpress purchasing aborted baby body parts. In fact, CSU spokesman Kyle Henley told a Colorado newspaper that the university does “not obtain or use full organs or body parts for research.”
However, in a 2013 scholarly journal from CSU, researcher Ramesh Akkina explains that they routinely use human fetal liver for virus research.
The information was published in the journal, Virology, and the researcher titled the work, “New generation humanized mice for virus research: Comparative aspects and future prospects.” The journal reveals that the research was published by the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology at CSU, the same department Stem Express shipped the aborted baby body parts to after CSU ordered them.
As LifeNews previously reported, in 2013 CSU purchased fetal body parts from Planned Parenthood’s flagship abortion facility in San Jose, California via a company called Stem Express. In total, nine specimens were harvested from eight different aborted babies killed in abortions at that Planned Parenthood clinic and the purchase order reveals CSU bought two body parts, including an aborted baby’s liver.
This came to light after the Center for Medical Research released a video of Planned Parenthood’s Medical Director, Deborah Nucatola, admitting that the abortion giant charges per-specimen for baby body parts, uses altered abortion procedures in order to get intact body parts, and is aware of their own liability for doing so and takes steps to cover it up.
In the CSU journal article, Akkina explains what they use human liver from aborted babies for in their experiments.
He writes, “We routinely use 5 x105 human fetal liver derived CD34 þ cells per mouse pup to ensure consistent engraftment, although fewer cells can be used, in which case the duration of engraftment may be shorter due to lower numbers of true hematopoietic stem cells.” (Emphasis added)
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In another section of the journal, Akkina reveals the age of the babies used in CSU’s experiments.
The researcher writes, “Human fetal thymic and liver tissues (16–22 weeks gestation) are dissected into 1 mm fragments and introduced together by the use of a trochar under the left kidney capsule of anesthetized mice. Each of the mice is later injected (i/v, tail vein) with 2.5×105 autologous CD34 þ HSC purified from the remaining fetal liver.”
At 16-22 weeks gestation doctors usually perform the Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) dismemberment abortion to end the unborn child’s life. These abortions are just as brutal as the partial birth abortion method, which are illegal in the United States.
In 2000, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said the following about D&E dismemberment abortions: “The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn limb from limb. The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off.” Justice Kennedy added in the Court’s 2007 opinion, Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld the ban on partial-birth abortion, that D&E abortions are “laden with the power to devalue human life…”
CSU’s involvement in purchasing the body parts of aborted babies has earned it criticism from Congressman Doug Lamborn, who has written tot he university asking it to stop the practice..
Regardless of what “good” could come from research on babies at this age, it is unethical and disrespectful of the babies who lives were taken in abortions to conduct research using their body parts.
At the end of the journal article, Akkina explains some of the disadvantages of CSU’s research and mentions that obtaining “fetal tissue” can be hard to procure in sufficient quantities.
He writes, “Disadvantages include the need for complicated surgery to implant human fetal tissues under the kidney capsule, and that the number of mice that can be generated from a single fetal donor tissue is limited. Scale-up of their production for large scale experimentation and testing also poses challenges due to the requirement for fetal tissues that are often difficult to procure in sufficient quantities.”
ACTION: Contact Colorado State University and urge it to stop doing research using body parts from babies killed in abortions.
