Wisconsin: GOP Anti fetal tissue bill will have a chilling effect on biomedical research

With its fiscal agenda mostly complete, members of the state's Republican leadership now are turning their attention to social issues. On Tuesday, Assembly Republicans introduced a bill backed by an anti-abortion group that would make it illegal to provide or use for experimentation a "fetal body part." Many fear the legislation would have a "chilling effect" on a range of biomedical research conducted at places such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "The current legislation is worded so broadly that it will eliminate promising lines of research on campus, including studies of childhood leukemia and infectious diseases," said a statement issued jointly by UW-Madison and UW Health. "It is important to note that federal law permits use of federal funds to support research involving fetal tissue as long as provisions of federal law are met."

Rep. Kelda Helen Roys, D-Madison, says this proposed legislation -- which was introduced by Rep. Andre Jacque, R-Bellevue, and co-signed by 51 other Republican members of the Assembly -- is an example of the "far right-wing bowing to special interests and totally ignoring actual challenges and problems facing Wisconsin." Jacque says the bill is "an important safeguard to put in place for respecting human dignity. I think there's plenty of ethical ways to be able to conduct the sort of experiments they're looking to do without using fetal body parts from induced abortions."

The bill is the top legislative priority for Pro-Life Wisconsin, with the anti-abortion group's leadership arguing it is needed to prevent parts of aborted fetuses -- such as cells, organs or tissue -- from being used in research. "We want to shut down this research," says Matt Sande, the director of legislation for Pro-Life Wisconsin. "Look, it's bad enough that these unborn children are being slaughtered through surgical abortion. It's another thing then to desecrate their bodies by experimenting upon them. It's immoral and grotesque. These are human beings. They have dignity and they have ultimate worth in the eyes of God and should have worth in the eyes of humanity."

The proposed legislation is very similar to a bill that was authored in part by Pro-Life Wisconsin and introduced by then-Rep. Sheryl Albers, R-Reedsburg, in 1999. That bill, which was part of a legislative agenda pushed by anti-abortion groups nationwide, easily passed the Republican-led Assembly but never gained traction in the Democrat-controlled Senate. This time around, however, Republicans not only control the Assembly, but the Senate and governor's office as well. Companion legislation to the bill put forth by Jacque is expected to be introduced in the Senate by Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend.

"You have a Republican Party that is intent on blurring the lines between religion and science," says Roys. "I think they've done the things they set out to do in terms of pleasing their corporate masters and have made some astounding power grabs to insulate themselves from voters, and now they can focus on these other extreme, fringe issues such as attacking science."

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The UW-Madison has been a world leader in the use of stem cells for biomedical research...just more of the GOP agenda to undo scientific research.

from frozen IVF is up to the "parents", this should be also. The cannot FORCE these embroyes to be implanted, or given up for Snowflake adoption, same is true for abortions, or miscarriges (did they think about that?) if the parent/parents so choose.

I had an ectopic pregancy at 5 weeks. Do you know I have had "religious" people tell me I should have NAMED and buried it? The catholic hosptial just put if out with the rest of the contents of my reputured fallopian tube.

These people are INSANE.

that have already been in use for years. There are researchers who have come to this university just to do this kind of research, and here comes the GOP to shut it down.



more from the news article:

In general, Gumperz investigates how the human immune system works. She notes biological systems are very complex and that learning more about the immune system is central to the practice of medicine. In particular, her lab studies ways to treat chronic graft-versus-host-disease. This disease -- a very painful ailment in which the new immune system rejects the body -- often arises in patients who receive transplanted immune cells as a way of treating cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma.

"So my lab can see a process occurring which is like the development of chronic graft-versus-host-disease," explains Gumperz. "We do a transplantation of the hematopoietic stem cells (cells that give rise to all blood cell types) and the fetal tissue from the thymus, and this gives us a really valuable way to examine if there is some alteration we can make while the new immune system is developing or is there a treatment we can develop no one has discovered."

Gumperz realizes there is a good deal of controversy surrounding the topic of abortion, but doesn't believe her research should be a part of that debate. "This law could cut off hope for a lot of people," says Gumperz. "Part of the problem to me is people conflating feelings about one thing that are separate from the other. There's no doubt there are a whole range of feelings about the issue of abortion. But the issue of abortion is separate. After the decision about a pregnancy is made, then you have to decide if you're going to discard or use for medical research. I just believe this (proposed legislation) could have a very chilling and inhibiting effect on important medical research."

University officials believe there may be 100 or more researchers on campus who could be affected by the proposed legislation.

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And I would have donated any and all the tissue from that pregnancy to further research, had I been asked.

You're lucky the catholic hospital didn't let you bleed to death. I've heard that is the way with catholic hospitals these days.

is the only way , it seems, to stop these lunatics. I know, easy for someone like me to say, who would not be at risk of jail or losing my job etc... but these people must not be knuckled under to any more. If they say your union is illegal, dare em to stop you from organizing and bargaining collectively anyway. If the fundies don't like your research, do it anyway. The people marching for civil rights in the south in the 60's risked jail and even death in their refusal to cooperate any longer with tyrannical right wing rule. This is the only way left now too.