I am writing this as a how-to guide on asking about tissue research and the selling of body parts. It will become a letter I will be sending to my "representatives" in Congress.
This is a draft and stream of conscience list of questions for now.
I would like feedback but don't expect anything back from me right away. I have to mow my lawn and I get distracted with other things, too.
Dear "Representative" ______,
Since you will be voting on restricting research and the possible profiteering of Planned Parenthood from fetal tissue also known as unborn human babies, will this legislation also include the other non-for-profit and for-profit tissue brokers that exist in our country? I ask this because this business is quite profitable and has, I assume if not expect, looser restrictions on where they get their body parts in comparison to what Planned Parenthood has to go through in red tape.
I found, albeit an old, story online about fraud, theft and profiteering in the for-profit tissue brokers world:
http://www.icij.org/...
The part I read was about a defunct dentist that lied about a murder-suicide and called it a car accident. He is in prison for that. The main buyer, Florida-headquartered RTI Biologics, is still in business from a quick google check. This business is on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
From the story:
"For more than three years until his crimes came to light in late 2005, Mastromarino’s firm supplied bones and other tissue to RTI's nonprofit subsidiary, RTI Donor Services, and four other U.S. companies."
I have some questions if you would kindly answer them:
Are family members the ones in charge of the deceased remains? If not, why not?
Why are businesses allowed to do research on corpses but not on fetal tissue? (FYI, Polio was cured by fetal tissue research.)
More from the story:
"More than 2,500 companies registered with the U.S. government rely to varying degrees on the fees they charge for crafting implants made from human tissue.
The world's largest human-tissue bank, Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, took in nearly $400 million in revenues in 2010."
"The Alabama Organ Center is one of RTI's suppliers. It was embroiled in scandal this spring when its second-in-command, Richard Alan Hicks, pleaded guilty to accepting kickbacks from a funeral home in exchange for tissue recovery contracts.
"There are too many loopholes. There are too many temptations. There's too much money out there," Hicks' attorney Richard Jaffe told ICIJ in June. "This industry is out of control.""
I agree with attorney Jaffe. So why are you not clamping down on more restrictions in the for-profit business of human remains?
I bet you could record a business lunch between the tissue brokers and the medical administrators without editing the footage and they would be saying the same thing but with a lot more dollar figures involved.
Sincerely from someone who is
Not considered a constituent by you,
__________
1:06pm
"That's the wrong angle. You're emphasizing
the supposed 'crime' alleged by the extremists. The emphasis needs to be on the positives of Planned Parenthood. The legislators can use the letter above to show support for defunding Planned Parenthood and restricting it. Also, some companies are legitimate and doing good research. Your letter could cause problems for them too. Instead of throwing out a wider net, narrow your letter to why Planned Parenthood is needed.
"We all make a mark on this life. The size of the mark isn't as important as the depth.""
by cv lurking gf
I do agree with you. I do. But I do want to cast a wider net and get all medical institutions involved in this double-standard that is being presented by the right. I think you may be right, though. I do want to cause problems. Only because so little skin is actually in this fight by the majority of people in the US.
It reminds me of the Iraq War and how I saw people around me not even acknowledging that it was going on except through the nightly news for one or two stories before the news moved on to some other topic. Rationing did not happen. Donations happened but probably not at the capacity it had in WWII.
It just looks like it is a gang fight fighting over a street instead of world war.
3:47pm 8/6/15
http://www.care2.com/...
Adding “burial” requirements or death certificates for all fetal death, and lumping abortion and miscarriage together, is likely to continue to block similar legislation from ever managing to pass into law. With one in five pregnancies ending in miscarriage, such a rule would likely cripple hospitals as well as hit a similar wall it did in Kansas. After all, no one wants to be the one to tell a person miscarrying a highly wanted child that now she has to prepare for its burial and disposal before she leaves a hospital, or that she’s going to receive a death certificate soon after to verify her loss.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/...
http://www.theguardian.com/...