Description of the Case Recently, there has been a significant amount of backlash on Planned Parenthood when it was released that a specific Planned Parenthood branch in California had been selling aborted baby parts for $60 each. In an article written by Steven Ertelt on lifenews.com, he discusses how the Planned Parenthood medical director admitted to doing the abortions different ways in order to obtain the various body parts they wanted to sell. Ertelt claims that it “had nothing to do with women’s health and everything to do with making money.” Although this is a rare and extreme case, it does raise a question about how ethical it is to do research on aborted fetuses, which is the issue that will be addressed in this paper. This is
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So, Planned Parenthood is left with the choice of fully disclosing where the donated parts are going and for what they’re going to be used, or they can, and do, just have a general line of the consent form that says “I understand I have no control over who will get the donated blood and/or tissue or what it will be used for,” which Kimberly Leonard talks about in her article on usnews.com. Leonard discusses how once you sign on that dotted line, they don’t have to necessarily give the fetal tissue to medical researchers, but they could give to researchers trying to develop things like cosmetic …show more content…
Sissela Bok, she brings up idea that “research on fetuses will lead society to condone research on other categories of the defenseless.” This ties back to the ethical issue of the fetus not having a say in what happens to it, which could conflict with the principle of do no harm, depending on one’s views on whether or not the fetus is yet a life. Regardless of your view on if the fetus is yet a baby or not, Bok’s proposal of this being the bridge towards doing research on others who are defenseless makes it seem as if these medical professional are in fact doing harm, when that is the opposite of what they should be aiming to
So, Planned Parenthood is left with the choice of fully disclosing where the donated parts are going and for what they’re going to be used, or they can, and do, just have a general line of the consent form that says “I understand I have no control over who will get the donated blood and/or tissue or what it will be used for,” which Kimberly Leonard talks about in her article on usnews.com. Leonard discusses how once you sign on that dotted line, they don’t have to necessarily give the fetal tissue to medical researchers, but they could give to researchers trying to develop things like cosmetic …show more content…
Sissela Bok, she brings up idea that “research on fetuses will lead society to condone research on other categories of the defenseless.” This ties back to the ethical issue of the fetus not having a say in what happens to it, which could conflict with the principle of do no harm, depending on one’s views on whether or not the fetus is yet a life. Regardless of your view on if the fetus is yet a baby or not, Bok’s proposal of this being the bridge towards doing research on others who are defenseless makes it seem as if these medical professional are in fact doing harm, when that is the opposite of what they should be aiming to