Report: Top Biden science advisor defended using aborted baby parts in research while NIH director
Pro-life leaders are challenging Dr. Francis Collins, a top Biden science advisor, after a new report claimed he defended the use of aborted baby parts for research while serving as director of the National Institutes of Health.
Collins, who identifies as a Christian and is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, made his remarks during a private event at the University of Chicago in October, the Daily Wire reported, citing a leaked audio recording. He responded to a student, who asked him about National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for experiments, such as the University of Pittsburgh's studies that involve the harvesting of aborted baby parts, at six to 42 weeks gestation, and grafting scalps of aborted babies onto lab rats. The Daily Wire noted that
While Collins said that he is “troubled” by abortion, he suggested that a moral and ethical case could be made for using the tissue of aborted fetuses.
“After all, pregnancy termination is, at the present time, legal in the United States. Whether you’re in support of it or not, it’s happened,” he said, according to the Daily Wire. “The material from those elective abortions is discarded.”
Collins, a physician-geneticist who led the NIH until December 2021, emphasized that this tissue could prove beneficial.
“There are aspects of fetal tissue that can be extremely valuable in understanding how life works, how development happens, and how to treat certain diseases like Parkinson’s disease, for instance.”
Collins shared his reasoning with the audience.
“Fetal tissue is being discarded in large quantities every day,” he said. “If there were a circumstance where, with consent of the mother, having been obtained after the abortion, not in any way as an inspiration to carry it forward, the abortion … could ultimately help somebody. Which of those two choices is more ethical — discard all the tissue or use a small part? … Can you, in fact, in some circumstances, even with actions that you consider immoral, derive something from it that might actually be moral and beneficial?”
“That’s the horns of the dilemma upon which I have been resting here for these 12 years as NIH Director, trying to oversee human fetal tissue research,” he concluded, “which is something that I have to make decisions about.”
Four months later, Collins began serving as Biden’s science adviser and co-chairman of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science.
The White House and the NIH did not respond for comment by time of publication.
The pro-life reaction
Pro-life leaders expressed shock and disappointment in Collins’ comments.
“Dr. Collins’ disregard for ethics and his defense of trafficking in aborted baby scalps, hearts, brains and eyeballs is horrific,” Dr. David Prentice, vice president and research director of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, SBA List’s education arm, told CNA. “His lack of understanding about the scientific failures of fetal tissue research versus the successes of alternatives like adult stem cells, which have already helped roughly 2 million people, displays a lack of leadership.”
Human persons, he said, are not commodities.
“Our nation needs people who value every human life, not for a person’s usefulness when parted out like a used vehicle, but rather for their intrinsic worth as a human being,” he concluded.
“Respect for the inherent dignity of the human person necessarily means that science is at the service of the person, not vice versa,” March for Life President Jeanne Mancini told CNA.