Planned Parenthood and profiting off of late-term abortion

[SandYFan]

Kind of surprised there's not a thread for this yet.

The accusation is that PP is

1. Performing late-term abortions and

2. Selling body parts from these aborted babies for profit.

Is this established? From what I have read and seen, it is heavily implied, but nothing seems 100% solid yet.

[Moliere]

Doesn't surprise me since this board is full of liberals (like Lebowski) that are probably already killings babies in their basements and parting them out.

I wonder how profitable this business is? Apparently not profitable enough to make it so tax payer $$$ don't fund abortions

[TripletDaddy]

I'm a fan of capitalism, the free market, and as little government intervention as possible. Go PP!

[Uncle Ted]

Doesn't surprise me since this board is full of liberals (like Lebowski) that are probably already killings babies in their basements and parting them out.

I wonder how profitable this business is? Apparently not profitable enough to make it so tax payer $$$ don't fund abortions

The government just makes it more profitable by throwing a little extra money their way.

[Northwestcoug]

Kind of surprised there's not a thread for this yet.

The accusation is that PP is

1. Performing late-term abortions and

2. Selling body parts from these aborted babies for profit.

Is this established? From what I have read and seen, it is heavily implied, but nothing seems 100% solid yet.

#1 I haven't heard this. I assumed that #2 is from 2nd term and earlier abortions.

Since this was an undercover sting operation by a pro-life group, I am waiting for the dust to settle. Apparently there are other videos with similar disturbing facts.

Having said that, I am OK with harvested fetal tissue making its way to medical research. At least it is not going completely to waste. The apparent profit from the sale of tissue is ethically dubious, but I haven't ran everything through my ethics-meter yet to see how I feel about that.

[imanihonjin]

#1 I haven't heard this. I assumed that #2 is from 2nd term and earlier abortions.

Since this was an undercover sting operation by a pro-life group, I am waiting for the dust to settle. Apparently there are other videos with similar disturbing facts.

Having said that, I am OK with harvested fetal tissue making its way to medical research. At least it is not going completely to waste. The apparent profit from the sale of tissue is ethically dubious, but I haven't ran everything through my ethics-meter yet to see how I feel about that.

I am surprised by this response. Perhaps you haven't watched the videos being released but the thing that should be equally disturbing to all folks, no matter where they fall on the abortions rights spectrum, is when you have doctors talking about how they can perform the abortion to produce better specimens. Is this really what you want your doctor thinking when they are performing a procedure? Hey, what is the best way for me to do this to make a buck? I don't doubt that many if not nearly all doctors would be able to perform a procedure without thinking of incentives outside of the safety and well being of the patient they are working on, but why in the world would you create even the opportunity for incentives to minimize the care of the individual for monetary profit on the back end?

[San Juan Sun]

On a somewhat tangential note, it's alsways irritated me that you donate blood, but the companies you donate to seel it to the hospital/patient.

I donated. Where is my piece of the action?

[Flystripper]

I am surprised by this response. Perhaps you haven't watched the videos being released but the thing that should be equally disturbing to all folks, no matter where they fall on the abortions rights spectrum, is when you have doctors talking about how they can perform the abortion to produce better specimens. Is this really what you want your doctor thinking when they are performing a procedure? Hey, what is the best way for me to do this to make a buck? I don't doubt that many if not nearly all doctors would be able to perform a procedure without thinking of incentives outside of the safety and well being of the patient they are working on, but why in the world would you create even the opportunity for incentives to minimize the care of the individual for monetary profit on the back end?

I have not followed this at all but does it really minimize the care?

[Sullyute]

On a somewhat tangential note, it's alsways irritated me that you donate blood, but the companies you donate to seel it to the hospital/patient.

I donated. Where is my piece of the action?

The WHO is reviewing their policy on that...

The position and guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) and several national blood collection agencies for nearly 40 years have been based on the view that offering economic incentives to blood donors is detrimental to the quantity and safety of the blood supply. The guidelines suggest that blood should be obtained from unpaid volunteers only.

However, whether economic incentives positively or negatively affect blood donations (and other prosocial activities) has remained the subject of debate since the positions were established.

Evidence consistent with the WHO position came originally from uncontrolled studies using nonrandom samples and, subsequently, from surveys and laboratory studies indicating that economic incentives can “crowd out” (decrease) intrinsic motivations to donate and can attract “worse” donors.

[imanihonjin]

I have not followed this at all but does it really minimize the care?

Obviously, I am no expert, but I would guess that it probably doesn't in the vast majority of cases, but I would also guess that there could be situations arise where a doctor could place a an instrument a little higher or a little lower on the fetus to allow the specimen to come out more fully intact, the doctors mention being able to do so in one of the videos. What I am saying is to me the only thing the doctor should be worried about is performing the procedure as safely as possible for the patient and we shouldn't be creating incentives where a doctor or clinic is placed in a position where they can profit from the results of a procedure and thus create a perception that they might be more interested in their own bottom line rather than simply the safety of a patient.

[Uncle Ted]

The WHO is reviewing their policy on that...

The guidelines suggest that blood should be obtained from unpaid volunteers only.

Guidelines? Why hasn't someone written an app that shows which hospital is paying the most for my blood? Screw the guidelines and the middleman.

[Pelado]

On a somewhat tangential note, it's alsways irritated me that you donate blood, but the companies you donate to seel it to the hospital/patient.

I donated. Where is my piece of the action?

Chump. Sell your plasma instead.

[Northwestcoug]

I am surprised by this response. Perhaps you haven't watched the videos being released but the thing that should be equally disturbing to all folks, no matter where they fall on the abortions rights spectrum, is when you have doctors talking about how they can perform the abortion to produce better specimens. Is this really what you want your doctor thinking when they are performing a procedure? Hey, what is the best way for me to do this to make a buck? I don't doubt that many if not nearly all doctors would be able to perform a procedure without thinking of incentives outside of the safety and well being of the patient they are working on, but why in the world would you create even the opportunity for incentives to minimize the care of the individual for monetary profit on the back end?

No, I haven't watched the videos. I am not a fan of gotcha videos, especially from groups with agendas. I assume they have been carefully edited. This does not, by the way, absolve PP of potentially unethical practices. But I'll wait for some type of official investigation before I make my judgment.

[YOhio]

Douthat bringing some heat.

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/201...renthood/?_r=0

[Color Me Badd Fan]

No, I haven't watched the videos. I am not a fan of gotcha videos, especially from groups with agendas. I assume they have been carefully edited. This does not, by the way, absolve PP of potentially unethical practices. But I'll wait for some type of official investigation before I make my judgment.

They released the unedited videos at the same time as the edited videos. Most people don't have the time to sit through 2 hours of unedited videos, so they offered edited videos too.