Aborted Fetal Material in Skin products

[Heneni]

Neocutis using aborted fetal material in skin cream

How do you feel about it (if its true)? How does this compare ethically to fetal stem cell research? And ethically how does the three things below rate on a moral/ethical scale for you?

1. Abortion
2. Using aborted material in skin products
3. Doing fetal stem cell research

 

[misanthropic_clown]

NeoCutis Acknowledges Cultivating Skin Creams from Aborted Fetus

It looks like the company used material from an aborted fetus to create a cell line which they used to develop their product. That is, it is not like they are harvesting fetuses to make more product, it is a one off thing.

Though developing beauty products isn't exactly the most noble of pursuits, I guess my policy is waste not want not. As cold as it may seem. The company didn't do anything to promote the abortion. They are just making the most of what was made available by that process.

 

[Mr Cheese]

heh they use foreskins for burns victims...

I think clown personage is most likely right, its sensationalism

 

[Mr Cheese]

hmmm this same website has:

Countdown until Obama leaves Office
1170 Days, 19 Hours, 03 Minutes, 07 Seconds.

...

uh yeah....thats a great website then

yeah, great right wing religious bull feces....

canadian too....

just goes to show, canada has idiotic religious extremists too

 

[Kilgore Trout]

It would be ironic if a society which regularly puts silicon and botulism toxin into their bodies due to vanity would have a problem with this. I suspect if enough rich white ladies are convinced that the product works well, they'll have no problem finding a rationalization for using the product.

 

[Alceste]

The company's website says nothing about "14 weeks" or "electively aborted male fetus". The only other articles I found that used the word "aborted" did not use the term "electively", and in medical terminology miscarriages are also referred to as "abortions". So there is reason to doubt your article, unless you can give me further info from an unbiased source.

How do I feel about it? Neutral, I guess, for all three.

1. Abortion is a difficult choice for any woman. As morality is mostly subjective I believe the appropriate position is to back off and let each woman decide for herself what is the right course of action.

3. Stem cell therapy has enormous potential to reduce suffering and extend human lives. Once a tissue sample is collected, additional cells can be grown in a lab environment, so the good for humanity that can result from a single biopsy of fetal material is potentially limitless.

2. My feelings about the skin and anti-aging care issue are kind of seperate to the stem cell research issue. I'm in favour of stem cell research on two conditions: 1) that the tissue is harvested before the development of a functioning nervous system, and 2) that the research focuses on life-saving therapies rather than frivolous cosmetic therapies.

As this is in part a frivolous cosmetic therapy, I'm inclined to disapprove, except that the cells they have cultured can contribute significantly to the healing of burn victims. So I approve of the latter while disapproving of the former.

 

[Heneni]

The company's website says nothing about "14 weeks" or "electively aborted male fetus". The only other articles I found that used the word "aborted" did not use the term "electively", and in medical terminology miscarriages are also referred to as "abortions". So there is reason to doubt your article, unless you can give me further info from an unbiased source.

How do I feel about it? Neutral, I guess, for all three.

1. Abortion is a difficult choice for any woman. As morality is mostly subjective I believe the appropriate position is to back off and let each woman decide for herself what is the right course of action.

3. Stem cell therapy has enormous potential to reduce suffering and extend human lives. Once a tissue sample is collected, additional cells can be grown in a lab environment, so the good for humanity that can result from a single biopsy of fetal material is potentially limitless.

2. My feelings about the skin and anti-aging care issue are kind of seperate to the stem cell research issue. I'm in favour of stem cell research on two conditions: 1) that the tissue is harvested before the development of a functioning nervous system, and 2) that the research focuses on life-saving therapies rather than frivolous cosmetic therapies.

As this is in part a frivolous cosmetic therapy, I'm inclined to disapprove, except that the cells they have cultured can contribute significantly to the healing of burn victims. So I approve of the latter while disapproving of the former.

First of all, thanks for answering my question. Your response is well thought out. Personally the idea that fetus cells are in facial creams is a bit....ewww... for me. The thought just occured to me, how would I feel about fetus cells in facial products if the fetus was a miscarriage?. I would not have the same ethical/moral objections to it then, but I would still have the ewwww factor.

About your number 3: It has been suggested that there is not really any added benefit to fetal stem cells being used rather than stem cells from the person who needs the treatment. The reason being that if the cells are taken out of the marrow of the person that needs the treatment, there is far less chance of their body rejecting the treatment. I agree that stem cells research is very valuable and since fetal stem cells don't add any real advantage to the treatment at the moment, I am hoping that it will take the back burner.

About your number 2, I agree with your point 2 of point 2.

Good to hear from you.

 

[Alceste]

I totally agree with the "eww" factor, but I already feel that way about almost most beauty products. I use pure coconut oil as a moisturizer and drink lots of water - that's good enough for me. I would never buy the product in question, but I wouldn't have bought it even if I didn't know there were cultured fetal skin cells in it.

I also agree that stem cells from living adult donors is also a very promising direction for research, but I wouldn't want any avenue of research closed off due to our reasonable squeamishness about fetal cells, especially if the cells are the result of natural miscarriage.

 

[Heneni]

NeoCutis Acknowledges Cultivating Skin Creams from Aborted Fetus

It looks like the company used material from an aborted fetus to create a cell line which they used to develop their product. That is, it is not like they are harvesting fetuses to make more product, it is a one off thing.

Though developing beauty products isn't exactly the most noble of pursuits, I guess my policy is waste not want not. As cold as it may seem. The company didn't do anything to promote the abortion. They are just making the most of what was made available by that process.

Yip they made due with what they could get their hands on. I do think that any product that uses fetal cells should be labeled such. Doesnt have to be a huge sticker on the product, but still somewhere on the product it should say that it contains these cells. What say you?

 

[whereismynotecard]

That's gross. Even if I didn't already have a problem with abortion, I wouldn't want to put dead baby cells all over my skin.

 

[Heneni]

That's gross. Even if I didn't already have a problem with abortion, I wouldn't want to put dead baby cells all over my skin.

Yeh the idea of applying cells from a once living fetus on your skin is eww I agree.

We humans are an odd bunch though. We will smear ourselves with petroleum and drink fish oil and drink live cultures (good bacteria - which totally freeked me out too until I forced myself to have some and got over it). We will eat shrimp (which is a cockroach), and go yum yum, well I do....i LOOVE shrimp.

Who would have thought 100 years ago that we humans would actually sell bacteria in a bottle? And whats more...drink it like there its the most natural thing to do.

It's a strange world after all.

Heneni

 

[whereismynotecard]

I don't eat shrimp, drink fish oil, or live cultures (I don't even know what live cultures is...) I do eat dead chickens though, and that's pretty gross.

 

[Heneni]

I don't eat shrimp, drink fish oil, or live cultures (I don't even know what live cultures is...) I do eat dead chickens though, and that's pretty gross.

they dont sell those tiny plastic bottles with good bacteria around your parts? Tastes like drinking yoghurt only its filled with living 'good' bacteria to help your digestive system and keeps your colon clean and stuff like that...never seen it? They sell it in the supermarkets here. Activia is one brand...can't think of another now.

 

[whereismynotecard]

I've seen commercials about Activia. I've never had it though. I hate yoghurt. I've tried it, and I just think it tastes terrible.

 

[misanthropic_clown]

Yip they made due with what they could get their hands on. I do think that any product that uses fetal cells should be labeled such. Doesnt have to be a huge sticker on the product, but still somewhere on the product it should say that it contains these cells. What say you?

I guess it would be nice to know, particularly since some people might be inclined to see it as morally objectionable. But I imagine the company is not obliged to do so, and does not intend to. I can't imagine it helping sales.

 

[enchanted_one1975]

They have been doing this for years. I believe they can use afterbirth as well. It kind of makes the whale vomit in perfume seem pleasant, doesn't it?

 

[Heneni]

It kind of makes the whale vomit in perfume seem pleasant, doesn't it?

It's a toss up between whale vomit and rabbit pee pee. Umm....whale vomit seems more gross. But works better.

PS: In what kind of things have they been using afterbirths?:sad:

 

[Smoke]

Though developing beauty products isn't exactly the most noble of pursuits, I guess my policy is waste not want not. As cold as it may seem. The company didn't do anything to promote the abortion. They are just making the most of what was made available by that process.

That's pretty much my take on it.

Meanwhile Vinnedge advises women who are using Neocutis products to throw them in the garbage and to contact the company to express their concerns.

Now, that's shocking and disappointing. One would expect full, public funerals with fundamentalist mourners keening over jars of Bio-Gel.

 

[Willamena]

And ethically how does the three things below rate on a moral/ethical scale for you?

1. Abortion
2. Using aborted material in skin products
3. Doing fetal stem cell research

They don't. Rate.

ALL life is sacred.

 

[Smoke]

ALL life is sacred.

I've never been able to agree with that or even understand it. I have a hardline, take-no-prisoners malevolence toward cockroaches and pathogenic bacteria, for instance.