An Oklahoma Republican is pushing a bill to outlaw the use of human fetuses in food, because, as he says, “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.”
State Sen. Ralph Shortey introduced a bill on Tuesday “prohibiting the sale or manufacture of food or products which contain aborted human fetuses.”
Though he has allowed that he is not aware of this occurring in Oklahoma, or anywhere for that matter, Shortey cited research he did on the internet that claimed that some companies use embryonic stem cells to help develop artificial flavoring. “It would be a public relations nightmare for a company to use” aborted human fetuses for R&D, Shortey told KRMG Radio, so when asked they usually say something like “we strive to do things ethically.”
“I’m not entirely sure if there are any” companies doing this, he continued. “But the fact is that 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. And if that is happening — because it is a possibility — and if it’s happening then I just don’t think it should even be an option for a company.”
Shortey added that if you took this idea to its logical conclusion, you could “force every human being” to be an organ donor, “and that’s kind of what we’re doing with these children. Before they’re born, we’re going to kill them and then we can do anything we want to with your body.”
“You may think it’s ethical to kill a child in the womb,” he said. “But the question now before us is: is it ethical to then use that aborted child for research and development to enhance flavors in food?”
You can listen to the full audio of the interview here.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Pat El-Hinnawy told the Associated Press
that the “FDA is not aware of this particular concern.”
And Tony Lauinger, the executive director of Oklahomans for Life, a pro-life group that has pushed anti-abortion laws in the state, said “I don’t know anything about that.”
The bill will be taken up by the Senate Human Services Committee in February.
Shortey did not return TPM’s request for comment.
Jillian Rayfield
Jillian Rayfield is a Reporter/Blogger for TPM, and started as a News Intern in May 2009. She graduated from Cornell University in May 2008 with a degree in Film, and worked as a Research Assistant for a market research firm in London in between.
Um... i think you are confusing "aborted human fetuses" which are not eaten in china as a delicacy with "fertilized chicken eggs containing an embryonic chick" which are!Try reading "Freakonomics" by the economist Steven D. Levitt and the author Stephen J. Dubnerwhich will show you what a massive benefit the so called "slaughter of innocent children through abortion" has made to the US society and economy.
@ianboyd.walker Actually, you may want to reread that. As a cost-benefits analysis, Levitt and Dubnerwhich found that the cost to society far outweighed the benefit. It is still considered plagiarism to wrongly attribute statements to authors:"There are roughly 1.5 million abortions in the United States every year. For a person who believes that one newborn is worth 100 fetuses, those 1.5 million abortions would translate - dividing 1.5 million by 100 - into the equivalent of a loss of 15,000 human lives. Fifteen thousand lives: that happens to be about the same number of people who die in homicides in the United States every year. And it is far more than the number of homicides eliminated each year due to legalized abortion [author referring to the projected drop in homicide rates attributed to abortion of high-risk babies]. So even for someone who considers a fetus to be worth only one-one hundredth of a human being, THE TRADE-OFF BETWEEN HIGHER ABORTION AND LOWER CRIME IS, BY AN ECONOMIST'S RECKONING, TERRIBLY INEFFICIENT [emphasis mine]."
I wonder if this is the same Oklahoma legislator that several years ago tried to pass legislation making seat-belts on motorcycles mandatory? Seat-belts on motorcycles?!?!? I thought this was nutty, but this latest nuttiest out of Oklahoma really takes the cake (note: no dead fetuses were used in the making of this cake).
Oh--My--Gawd! Just when you think these provincial GOP legislatures and legislators can't get any worse, something like this happens.
Christ! Does this guy actually reside on planet Earth?
Well, lemme see, he's a Baptist, he lives in what appears to be Oklahoma and he's a Republican. No surprises there! Why is it GOP politicians just love to legislate on non-problems? Arn't there enough REAL problems to deal with?
Next, this jackass will be calling for laws against witchcraft.
seriously, Seriously???????
I want my baby-back baby-back baby-back baby-back - Chili's... Baby Back Ribs! {barbecue sauce!!!}
The HEK293 cell line was, indeed, isolated from the kidney of a healthy aborted fetus in the 1970s in Europe. I've used them myself in research. They are a workhorse cell line for expression of proteins. In this case, they were used to express a protein used in an assay to measure the "taste" of different artificial flavors. But no cells are used in the making of the flavoring, or the making of the soft drink.
But if you have a belief that they shouldn't be used in research, then I guess he has a point. But the bill is still silly.
mardam WTF? Actual science? Don't you realize that this comment thread is reserved for classy jokes and asides about the relative intelligence of Oklahomans? Yeesh.
Do you think he knows the "Big Green Church with Wheels" is a bus?
Maybe he just can't spell? Could he have meant feces? ... only two letters different. :-)
Sounds like the birth of a nickname to me. Instead of "Okie", call them "fetus eaters".
the guy in the photograph looks like he's been chowing down on human fetuses for years already. is oklahoma the capital of stupid?
Actually, Coca-Cola Pepsico, Kraft Foods, and Nestlé are among the corporations partnered with a biotech company, Senomyx, found using aborted fetal cell lines to test food flavor enhancers, according to a pro-life watchdog group.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/biotech-company-u...
But there is no plan to include the fetal cells in any food product, yet.
Kevin Schmidt "according to a pro-life watchdog group." Well right there you know it has to be true.
...
From what I could find, the biotech company uses stem cells to help produce taste bud receptors with which to test chemical reactions to various substances so as to best guage how to enhance some flavors or block the reception of others. This information then gets relayed to food producers to help them improve artificial flavoring.
Ummm, isn't there a clause that allows you to remove officials or representatives from office when they're mentally incapable of staying in touch with reality?
Felix Hoefert If that were true, crickets would be all you hear in the Oklahoma legislature.
The dude is a dingus, and the bill, if based on nothing but "it could happen somewhere, sometime," needs to be stuffed in a bag in favor of #realworldproblems ...but there's a source here http://www.naturalnews.com/034777_Pepsi_aborted_fe... (with links for further reading) that needs following up.
Ordinarily, I would highly doubt that this is anything but the plot of some interesting science fiction, but I'm not certain I trust large food conglomerates not to have jumped on some crazy chemistry. I don't know enough either way to dismiss the possibility outright. I'm willing to be enlightened.
athenaprime I thought that stem cells used in science were harvested from cord-blood. In any case, I would do some serious digging past this article.
I actually looked at his "bill" as well. He simple has a single sentence that states this is now illegal. No details beyond that, no mention of punishment, just we declare it illegal. One of those pointless showcase bills.
Jobs, jobs, jobs (errr I meant fetus flavorings). It's amazing that the party that wants to gut the EPA, the FDA, not let the consumer protection bureau comes up with these moronic proposed laws. "Soylent green is people." What a maroon!
If you ran against this dimwit, would he characterize you as the "Pro-Fetus Eating Candidate"?
TerryDarc That comment makes me picture Christopher Reeve from the Southpark stem cells episode.
Is it possible to be too dumb to be elected as a Republican in Oklahoma?
@Jimmie D. Davis Is this a trick question, like "Can God make a rock so big that he can't lift it?"
Cube Zombie@jimmie For Okie Repubs, all questions are trick,
Baby fetus, it's a food seasoning, essentially.
Anomaly100 soylent green is people
Wait, does this mean that the "Baby Ruth" candy bar I just ate is actually ...
@Cube Zombie And my Sugar Babies?!?
That bus should have bars on the windows, just like the prison and asylum buses. Clearly there's one escapee pictured next to the bus! They really need to keep the crazies from escaping!
I'm sure someone has already asked this, but: is that the Shortey bus he rides in the picture?
I can understand his concern, even if I think he sorely needs a hobby. Yes, this would be a concern, if this situation had a snowball's chance of occurring, but probablility is not the same as possibility. I think, based on all I've read thus far, that the disposition of stem cells and aborted fetuses and the ethical framework involving these problems has largely been worked out, rendering his argument academic. Yes, occasional tweaks, such as what he proposes, might be needed, but I suspect the grave outcome he envisions is unlikely. But I wouldn't be a bit shocked (shocked!) to hear that a nation that glorifies the exploitation of its citizens in perpetually evolving and quite entertaining manners came up with a use for children before they are born. Like, say, harvesting stem cells from perfectly healthy (you can tell I hope he's reading this, can't you???) children, for, oh, food additives?????Heh.
But really, now, is this man so divorced from the English language as to have missed (what am I saying??) such a classic of literature as "A Modest Proposal"?
Ugh. I'm goin' back to bed......
Are you kidding? You think this moron could understand the concept of satire? Not likely. He'd probably rant about that guy, Jon Swift, and how he should be locked up for this dastardly propsal.
I'm pretty sure that he just won earths stupid contest hands down.
That's the problem with guys like Shortly; they just are so closed-minded about this stuff. Down here in liberal California, we have been eating aborted babies for years. We tried Republicans however their meat is feted and rancid and smells like Newts upper lip. Enough to make any heathen hurl.
I'm guessing Sharia law is involved here in some way.
The first amendment allows people to believe in fairy tales, but doesn't give them the right to impose their unreasonable & irrational beliefs on others. Doesn't his book of magic give him a spell he can cast so we don't have to spend real $ and real time on imaginary goblins?
wrightwingnut Sadly, you're an even bigger douchebag than he is.
Kyle Maxwellwrightwingnut I guess I must be a douchebag also, 'cause I agree with wrightwingnut. Alas, my fate has been revealed by a thumper named Kyle. Perhaps all other douchebags reading this can own up to Kyle and admit your own profound douchebagness.
I will stand up and admit it.
About 15 years ago an Oklahoma congresscritter, in responding to the state's very high divorce, murder, illiteracy, alcohol & other drug addiction, etc. rates, managed to get a big federal grant to fight the root cause of these social problems. He even specified the root cause: goths.
Your tax dollars NOT at work, thanks to these wingnuts.
tomdurkin
As a former owner of a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle I resent the term "WingNut" being used to describe a politician. Us Gold Wing enthusiasts are a proud lot. The proper term for them should be "RightWingNut". FYI, I still have my tie tack made from a gold plated wing nut.
I don't know what Bubba is eating, but it's a lot.
"...Shortey cited research he did on the internet that claimed that some companies use embryonic stem cells to help develop artificial flavoring..."
Any chance he'll try some good, old-fashioned library research? What people used to think of when they said they were "researching" something?
agavecasa
He got his research facts from Onion.com
This sounds like the typical moronic GOP crap. Like Sharia Law--which does not exist in the US--this is just sensationalistic crap designed to scare the crap out of feeble minded voters.
Every time I think it is not possible for anyone to be any more stupid, someone proves me wrong.
...you all better listen up...this is a true happening in China as we speak--aborted fetuses are marketed and eaten regularly as a delicacy--if you think this can't happen here you're deceived which it sounds like most of you are anyway. Our good old USofA practices the slaughter of innocent children through partial birth abortion all the way up to 36+ weeks--calculation would give you a pretty horrific idea of what this counry has come to.
...it seems and I think you'd agree that wrong is right and right is wrong anymore...better check your heart out and see if you have any moral convictions left...from what I've been reading here you all are scaring me.
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