Oklahoma has a history of passing laws against things that don’t exist–such as Shari’a law being used in Oklahoma courts–a habit that can get ridiculous. In this case, I think the key provision is the one dealing with “research & development.”
An Oklahoma bill that would ban the sale of food containing aborted human fetuses has some people wondering: What food currently contains aborted human fetuses?
The bill, introduced Jan. 18 by State Sen. Ralph Shortey, prohibits the manufacture or sale of “food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.”
Shortey declined to give specific examples but said some food manufacturers used stem cells in the research and development process.
“There is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors,” he told KRMG Radio. “I don’t know if it is happening in Oklahoma, it may be, it may not be. What I am saying is that if it does happen then we are not going to allow it to manufacture here.”
Shortey may be acting on claims that the San Diego-based company Semonyx used proteins derived from human embryonic kidney cells to test artificial sweeteners, NPR reported. The cell line, known as HEK 293, was created from a human embryo in 1970 and has become a staple in biochemistry labs around the world.
via Bill Would Ban Aborted Fetuses in Food – Yahoo! News.
Might such a law be needed someday? Are there embryonic experiments being proposed that might come close to cannibalism? Or is this just a Swiftian proposal to wake people up to the dehumanizing of human embryos and other fetuses that is already taking place?
HT: Mary
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“Soylent Green is people!”
But seriously, we’re already consumers of people parts. Foreskins are collected and used to produce cosmetics like anti-wrinkle creams, and to grow new skin for burn victims. The placenta, too, is collected and used to make cosmetics and shampoos. It’s also an ingredient in health products like nutritional supplements, but only in China and other Eastern nations. The FDA doesn’t allow this particular use here. (Because of concerns about disease transmission – not cannibalism.)
He should have included pig fetuses. It would have been a nice counter-balance to the anti-shari’a law.
Don’t knock fetii until you’ve tried it.
There were reports of the Chinese using human fetal remains in some “stamina” pills. Probably not too likely the pills made it to Oklahoma, but you can never be to careful.
http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles/193371/20110805/china-dead-baby-pill-stamina-booster-cannibal-placenta.htm
Oklahoma has a problem with stamina? You’d think the “sooner” state would have a different dysfunction.
The bill only bans the use of human fetuses in human food.
You can still use them in pet food. My goldfish was relieved to know that.
Legislatures should only meet for one month per year. We would all be far better off.
Legislatures: the strongest argument against direct representation.
Actually, this reminds me of my conversation with Cincinnatus some weeks ago, and the problem of “over-codification” of the law.
Best line (paraphrase): I don’t know if this is happening, but I want to ban it.
Surely Shortey must be a Republican.
The important line to remember here is “or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.” This is happening now.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC123709/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HEK_293
Just wanted to point this out. Whether you care or not is a different story.
Why not ban vaccines from aborted babies? Including mmr and chickenpox.
Why not, indeed, Koolaid? Do the ends justify the means?
Formerly just steve, I’m sure researchers can find some way that murdering 40 million or even 80 million people has done some good. Check with Stalin and Mao.
They can probably figure out a way to kill another 100 million babies and do research on them to develop some therapy so the rest of us can live 10 years longer.
Indeed, if an embryo is truly a person, we can’t privilege the rights of a born person over an unborn person. Even if embryonic stem cell research could cure cancer, if an embryo is a person, we can’t sacrifice the life of one human to save another. For the same reason, we can’t allow abortion even if the life of the mother is at stake. After all, we are killing the child to save the mother.