Are you pro-life? Then this video is a must-watch for you. Are you pro-abortion? Then consider this application of the Christian worldview to a very difficult situation as a direct challenge to you. This is a discussion of the five main strains of human cells, starting in the 1950s, that that were used to develop many different medicines and life-saving vaccines. Questions of ethics, privacy, paperwork (or not), and other things make for a tangled web of information. Dr Rob untangles everything for you.

Notes and links:

• Fetal Tissue Research Part 1: Human cloning
• Recommended reading: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
• HeLa cells
• WI-38
• MRC-5
• HEK-293
• Per.C6
• Alex van der Eb
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, News & Views: Why Were Fetal Cells Used to Make Certain Vaccines? 25 Apr 2017; chop.edu/news/news-views-why-were-fetal-cells-used-make-certain-vaccines.
• Graham, F.L. Cell line transformation. Curr Contents 8:8, 1992; garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1992/A1992HC31200001.pdf
• Shaw, G., Morse, S., Ararat, M., and Graham, F.L. Preferential transformation of human neuronal cells by human adenoviruses and the origin of HEK 293 cells. The FASEB Journal 16(8):869–871, 2002; doi: 10.1096/fj.01-0995fje.
• Funk, W.D. et al. Evaluating the genomic and sequence integrity of human ES cell lines; comparison to normal genomes. Stem Cell Res 8(2):154–164, 2012; doi: 10.1016/j.scr.2011.10.001.
• van der Eb’s testimony: US-FDA Meeting report FDA-CBER Vaccines and Related Products Advisory Committee, fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/01/transcripts/3750t1_01.pdf. See pages pages 77 through 90 plus the Q&A section at the end of the document.

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