The pervasiveness of fetal tissue research is not common knowledge. Stacy Trasancos walks you through the past of fetal tissue research, going back to the early 1900s, the present state of this type of research globally, and the future that humanity is likely facing if this form of research is not confronted and stopped. But why is it wrong to use children killed by abortion for research? Fundamentally, it is a fight for the dignity of the human person, for what dignity can there be for any of us if we live in a society where the unloved and discarded children killed by abortion are used like gold standard lab rats to cure our loved ones? It is time to take the big view of this issue and get prepared as Catholics.
The controversy during COVID-19 over aborted fetal cell lines has brought the bigger issue of fetal tissue research to the forefront of discussion in politics and in the Church. A book that systematically reviews the past and present of the issue, and then uses that foundation to predict what the future might look like, will be valuable to Catholic laity and leaders in planning how to engage the world on this issue, ultimately using it as a platform to teach the truth of Jesus Christ regarding the dignity of the human person. Something like "dignity" is a hard concept to teach amid the scientism of our day.
The book will be limited to a discussion about the scientific research, and it will not go into depth about the consumer and political end of the issue. The research underlies everything else. Until the public knows what is happening in research labs, they won’t have the information to effectively fight the practice at the consumer and legislative level.