U.S. Health and Human Services Department Cut Contract to Purchase “Fetal Tissue” for Testing

U.S. Health and Human Services Department Cut Contract to Purchase “Fetal Tissue” for Testing

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has cut its contract with a biomedical procurement company that would have allowed the FDA to purchase “fetal tissue” for drug testing.

The decision comes after 85 members of Congress signed a letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, calling for an end to the contract.

“Unborn children are not commodities to be bought and sold,” the letter said. “The practice of conducting research using the body parts of children whose lives have been violently ended by abortion is abhorrent.”

The FDA initially wanted to contract with the company to buy fetal tissue that would have been used for research, but this week HHS announced it would not be working with the company and canceled the $15,000 contract.

“HHS was not sufficiently assured that the contract included the appropriate protections applicable to fetal tissue research or met all other procurement requirements,” the department said in a statement released Tuesday.

HHS also said it would review all federal contracts that involve buying fetal tissue.

According to NBC News, in previous years, the HHS has said that fetal tissue “continues to be a critical resource for important efforts such as research on degenerative eye disease, human development disorders such as Down syndrome, and infectious diseases, among a host of other diseases.”

The new HHS review will look at “the serious regulatory, moral, and ethical considerations involved,” according to CNN.

Photo courtesy: Julie Johnson/Unsplash