An offhand comment by a friend brought this issue to my awareness. The comment was something along the lines of "We're living in an age when it's acceptable to use kidney cells from aborted fetuses to sweeten our soda." My jaw did, literally, drop. This person is not in the habit of lying, but I wanted to know the details... so I looked it up. Thanks, Google.
Turns out, it's true.
http://www.naturalnews.com/034777_Pepsi_aborted_fetus_cells_soda_flavoring.html
Make sure you look at all the citations.
Now, as any participant in, and most observers of, the culture wars know, it's all about language, defining your terms. We're "pro-life," they're "pro-choice." We are "against women's health," they are "pro-death." So it is with this argument. You will find articles (as I did) on the opposite extremes of the culture wars here. According to this NPR blog post, it's merely a case of using stem cells in food research. This NaturalNews.com post calls it a little more bluntly by indicating that aborted fetus cells are being used to make sweeter food. And the waters are further muddied by the Oklahoma State Senator who is attempting to ban food containing fetuses in his home state, which, of course, making the fur fly on both sides. (By the way - thanks Senator Shortey)
I will mention briefly, but gloss over the fact that I could stop right here. It disgusts me to think that our consumer-driven economy needs to perform biomedical-level research to make food sweeter so that more people will buy it and stuff their faces with it. Dear God! How many millions were spent on that research? How many man-hours? Whose pockets are being lined by it? What greater good is served by it?
As if that isn't disturbing enough (and trust me, it gets worse), check this out.
If NPR is to be trusted, the cells in question are part of a cell line called HEK 293 that was indeed cultured from an "electively aborted fetus" (read, a little baby killed in the womb) in the early 70's. Mothers, fathers and all prospective parents - I HOPE YOU'RE LISTENING. The life you helped create could be ended and its kidneys could be used to increase the market share of whatever giant food conglomerate is willing to pay for it. I don't think it's disingenuous to frame it this way. This is exactly what is happening. Yes, "Stem Cell Research" is another name for it. A much cleaner, cooler sounding name. A name you usually associate with things like much-promised miracle drugs and other life-saving discoveries. But there's a hideous, disgusting truth behind it, and this soda thing is just one tiny corner of it. It doesn't sound so cool when it's being used to fatten up your second-graders and get them addicted to stuff that will eventually complete the vicious circle by bolstering the coffers of the pharma companies when early-onset diabetes and weight-related heart issues kick in. Then they can fund more "medical" research that will ultimately be used for... who knows? Use your imagination. Just be sure to put your cynical horror cap on first, because that's the only way you'll ever be able to make what you think of match reality.
