There is an urban legend in its nascent stages floating around the Christian community. A Pro-Life group has seized upon a line item in PepsiCo.’s R&D budget, combed the patent filings for the company receiving said funds and discovered that the company in question–Senomyx–is using a line of stem cells in their research that includes cultivars from a fetus aborted sometime around 1970.
In other words, 40 years ago in a laboratory in Holland, ONE aborted fetus–aborted for reasons unknown to us–had it’s embryonic stem cells harvested. In a process not unlike sourdough starter, those cells from that ONE fetus have promulgated into a line of stem cells used all over the world.
The Pro-Life Politic movement spin on this issue is this:
Pepsi Shareholders File SEC Resolution To Stop Using Aborted Babies For Flavor Research
Now, I don’t know about you, but that headline makes it sound to me as though PepsiCo is using truckloads of babies and squeezing them like apples in a cider press. And so it goes as this article has done a general whip-round of Facebook, prayer chains, Christian playgroups and anywhere else the grapevine births an urban legend. The headline of the article (found at Bound4Life.com) seems purposely misleading and incendiary to me. Dead!Babies!In!Diet Pepsi!
What the article fails to mention is that this line of stem cells is now used in scientific research in much the same way as petri dishes and formaldehyde. It is used not only by this Semonyx company to test for flavour-enhancers but by medical research teams who are developing cancer treatments, Alzheimer’s treatments, diabetes treatments…the HEK293 stem cell line is SO ubiquitous that a Google Search for “HEK293 in Medical Research” yields upwards of 294,000 results. Chances are pretty good that every one who has ever passed along the article about Dead Babies In Pepsi has also prayed for a relative or church brethren stricken with some ailment–and being kept alive by medicines that resulted from HEK293 research.
Now, lest you think I’m sitting here thinking “aw, it’s no big deal! What’s one little baby?” let me just say that I am no fan of abortion. It IS an issue I struggle with, because I think our response as a Christian community over the years has more often than not lacked the Grace of our calling.
And I happen to think this particular handling of this particular story ALSO lacks the Grace of our calling. Are we so eager to make a point about medical ethics that we will forgo the basic ethics of truth-telling?
I know a lot of the people who have received this article are relatively new to the subject of bioethics. They may not realise just how much of their life is altered by scientific research they would find ethically repugnant. But I bet many of them routinely celebrate the 4th of July, Veterans’ Day, Memorial Day and Easter; all holidays that honour the sacrifice of other human beings that enable our way of life. We accept that soldiers die to protect our freedom and ideals. We accept that brain-dead individuals are taken off life support to harvest their organs and thus prolong life for others. I don’t know that I’m finding it THAT much of a stretch to say that this one fetus has had the tragedy of interrupted life redeemed in a way by the salvation her cells have brought the world over. Sure, a sweeter Diet Pepsi is no big deal. But my friend Joan, alive today after a battle with lymphoma, owes her life in part to the baby whose cells started HEK293 so many decades ago. My friends on the Arthritis Support boards who take Remicade, Enbrel, and any other biologic medicine** owe their higher functioning to Baby HEK293. Nearly all the women for whom we wear pink ribbons owe their lives and can trace their victory in the battle against Breast Cancer to research done with HEK293 cells.
It’s a hard choice, and one that I’ve agonised over since the issue of Stem Cell Research first came to my attention a decade ago. The place I’ve arrived at is to believe that research should continue using the existing lines, and that no more lines should be created from Embryonic cells.
The fact that Baby HEK293 never got to be born is truly sad. That others live as a result of her sacrifice is perhaps an example of “all things working together for good.”
No, the end doesn’t justify the means but it can sweeten the tears.
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*I do realise that the medically and scientifically correct term is actually “fetus”. However, since I am directing these arguments primarily at the pro-life segment, and in pro-life terminology anything after conception is a “baby”. So that’s why we’re going with the pro-life operational definition as opposed to the scientific operational definition.
**Just for the record, I do personally try my best to avoid any product I know to be directly resultant from stem cell research. I have elected to forgo biologic treatment of my RA because of stem cell research and its role in developing those medicines. But that is very much a personal choice and one that I cannot force upon any other person. And to my earlier point I realise that it is nigh unto impossible to avoid it in every circumstance. But if there’s ever a case where I can say that I will not profit by another’s death, I stand on that belief. It’s also why I avoided many types of fertility treatment. And I happen to know that more than one person who sent that Pepsi article around has done IVF.
I feel the same way, Katherine. I’m aware that my life today is possible because a young life was ended prematurely– for whatever reason. I honor him or her.
Donation of umbilical cord blood should provide all the stem cells research could ever need. Bone marrow transplants are also being done with donated cord blood.
One of the things that should be understood is the actual process.
This is what happens:
Baby aborted in 1970.
Stem Cells harvested to clone NEW Babys.
(ONE stem cell can produce a new baby, stem cells split indefinatly)
NEW babys grew to up to 3 months…
Stem cells harvested KiLLING MULTIPLE NEW BABIES cloned from Original.
and the cycle repeats itself…
from ONE aborted baby…could Come THOUSANDS of CLONES since 1970
Thousands of babies up to 3 months have been killed in the labs to take these valuable stem cells… that help people..
thus ONE aborted baby suffered a THOUSAND deaths..
He or She probably died again yesterday, every 3 months since 1970, multiplied by the number of times the baby was cloned since 1970
Uh, the only known (and failed) attempt at human cloning was in 2004, and that involved implanting an embryo into a woman. We don’t, today, have the technology to grow 3 month old babies in petri dishes and we certainly haven’t been doing it “every 3 months since 1970.” You may want to reconsider trusting the source that gave you this information because it doesn’t even begin to pass the most basic common sense test.
Thanks , dolphin, for stepping in here.
When the comment came in over the weekend I actually spent quite a bit of time researching the process for duplicating HEK stem cells.
A _very_ simplified answer (accurate without too much alienating technical jargon) is that the stem cells are duplicated by growing them in a gooey mixture. Sort of like the way you start seeds for your garden.
The whole reason labs started isolating HEK cells was because they were easily duplicated and less costly than embryonic tissue. They’re easier to ship, to store and to grow than an embryo. So it makes no sense to say they grow an embryo for the tissue.
The nightmare scenario about the cloning of babies sounds like something straight out of a pulp novel. And it is why I continue to be angry about the scientific illiteracy we Christians flaunt as a badge of honour.
Coble, slightly O/T — I don’t know specifically what medium is used to maintain HEK cells, but my first better-than-babysitting job included maintaining HeLa cells. (A quick and cursory google search says that HEK cells can be maintained in the same medium as HeLa cells, but that another medium is preferred.) HeLa cells are maintained in a liquid — it’s not even gooey.
Ah! I knew someone would correct me. One of the eighteen to thirty papers I read from different labs mentioned the solution being “viscous”. From that I extrapolated gooey. But there are different solutions favoured by different labs, so maybe that viscous one is gooier than the HeLa liquid.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry! I wish people would stop forwarding messages they haven’t researched. And I wish other people knew that Snopes isn’t the end-all and be-all of research. The absurdities of life are sometimes too much.
Jill, if I could get people to at least start with Snopes, I would cry from happiness.
And oddly, Snopes was my first stop when I saw the article yesterday but they didn’t mention it at all. I strongly suspect that’s because this hasn’t yet vectored beyond far-right Pro-Life Politic circles.
Thank you for this article! I knew when I could only find this on pro-life & Christian-based websites and they all pointed to the same article that something wasn’t totally right in how this info was being portrayed.
I don’t know how thankful you really should be that your friends used Remicade. According to the woman at this link:
http://www.maggiorabros.com/Mom.html
She blames Remicade for her mother’s death. Maybe she should really blame the the scientists who used some poor baby’s fetal cells.
You all are sick…I don’t care if the baby was aborted in 1970 or now it is still human ….why are we using human tissue in taste tests??????? This is so Solent Green!!! (for you youngsters this was a movie where old people were made into food).
Julia, you’re soylent green hysterics, though a big stretch either way, might have at least some modicum of validity if the stem cells were actually being used IN Pepsi to be consumed by people. But they are merely being used in a sorta “bio-computer” (for lack of a better way to describe it) to produce objective data on flavor (something that isn’t easy to get OBJECTIVE data about).
The key element that seems to be lacking in this article and thread is that the aborted baby back in 1970 didn’t make a concious decision to aid mankind in its scientific reasearch. Those brave souls who died for our country, or are organ doners – made an act of free will, to better our way of life, protect our freedom, or prolong the lives of others. In no way shape or form should we ever justify the use of stem cell research, unless you have a signed document from that poor baby girl saying she didn’t want to experience life, the love of a family, and all we enjoy in our “improved lifestyle”, but that she would rather sacrifice her wordly existence in order to aid thousands of scientific studies.
Here is an idea – if you want a better tasting, lower calorie drink. Try a glass of purified water. Its much better for you, and your conscience will be clear. One drop of poison will pollute the entire well. Stem Cell research is immoral, and should under no circumstances be condoned.
Just my two cents.
I cannot believe they have been using fetus cells since the year 1970! Their is something wrong with that i find this very disgusting pepsi will never get my money again!
HeLa cells were harvested non-consensually, also. Henrietta Lacks died at John Hopkins Hospital of aggressive cervical cancer in 1951, leaving behind five impoverished children. Her cervical cells turned out to be immortal, like these lines of stem cells.
If you’ve had a polio vaccine you’ve benefited from the unethical harvest of her cells. She and her family never profited in any way, or even knew her cells had been propagated on a massive scale for sale in the medical industry. You can still buy her cells as easily as you would buy a test tube.
The greater bioethical discussion involves consent in harvesting cells, using unique DNA and cells as patented medical “products”, and who should profit. If you want to really get the heeby jeebies about medical bioethics, read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
I’m a Christian woman, and pro-life, but these forms of research have already directly benefited most Christian pro-lifers. These cells are bought and sold as tools. The companies that harvest, patent, and sell them to researchers for profit should have to disclose their actions and share profits with informed, consensual donors. This fetus could have been originally thrown away as medical waste after a d&c, from a woman who miscarried in a very early stage of pregnancy. The woman who gestated this fetus may not know that its cells were cultured, or had special characteristics that caused them to be propagated for research.
These cells are widely available research tools. They’re not “in” the Pepsi. Pepsi probably sends newly developed sweeteners to this sub-contractor to test their safety and effects on live cells.
Sounds like the Brave New World to me! I am opting out of Pepsi! Would like more information if anyone has any. A baby is a baby no matter how small!
I came across this blog by accident, and thought I’d share one piece of information which has not been mentioned thus far. So this is not merely a reply to Jodie but a bit of info for y’all. The name of the cell line being used is HEK293. Now, the ‘HEK’ part most of you probably know what it stands for, which is ‘Human Embryonic Kidney.’ However, do you know what the number stands for? Now, this is the shocking part. ‘293’ stands for the number of fetuses scientists had to go through before they could establish a stable cell line. I bring this up because several of you, including the person who wrote the article above, attempt to minimize the severity of this issue by highlighting that only ‘ONE fetus had its embryonic stems harvested.’ This statement is inaccurate.
DRH, I couldn’t agree more. My question to those not standing 100% pro-life is this, “who gives the “right” to take a life?” The life of an unborn child is not the mothers life. How is that any different than taking the life of a new born child. The answer is, it isn’t. You can’t be pro-life but then make exceptions. If you make exceptions to pro-life, you’re pro-abortion. The ends justifying the means is no different than a terriost saying to you, “kill this 5 year old child and I will let 10 children live.” Would you then kill that 5 year old child, feeling justified that you “saved” the 10? This is the problem, God hasn’t given you the right to take a life no matter how you think you can justify it.
How on earth has this post not gone completely viral?! It’s SO perfectly put. So COMMON sense. And yet, people still spread that crap around. I put a link to your post on my blog, I hope that’s okay. If it’s not, let me know.
Lexi, that’s great by me! Thanks!
It hasn’t gone viral because it’s not Shocking! and it’s not A Call To Arms!!
BUT… all those medical uses are not FOOD that people EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Neither are any of the applications of HEK293 used by Senomyx in it’s research for PepsiCo.
Your means of describing the whole thing in this post is
in fact pleasant, all be able to simply understand it, Thanks a lot.