From Life News: A prominent scientist criticized the University of Pittsburgh this week for “trafficking body parts” from aborted babies for gristly experiments, including one in which babies’ scalps were implanted onto rodents to study the human immune system.

The university has been defending its research with aborted baby body parts, pointing to a recent investigation that found it is “fully compliant with applicable laws.”

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But Dr. David Prentice, the vice president of the Charlotte Lozier Institute and a medical researcher, said the investigation, which was commissioned by the university, was too narrow. What’s more, he said there is no need to use unethically obtained tissue from aborted babies in scientific research.

“This tissue is derived via the death of an innocent unborn child,” Prentice told The College Fix in a new interview. “There’s frankly no realistic way that informed consent can be given for the donation of the organs, tissues, and body parts of the child. So this amounts to trafficking body parts. Whether that’s legal or not, it is definitely a lack of respect for the individual who died in this procedure.”

Last year, the Pennsylvania university commissioned the investigation after Judicial Watch and the Center for Medical Progress exposed evidence of babies potentially being born alive in abortions and other disturbing practices at the university. The evidence came from documents they obtained from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through a Freedom of Information Act request…

The university continues to maintain that its research practices are legal and ethical. A university spokesperson told The Fix this month that its research with “fetal tissue … plays a critical role in advancing life-saving discoveries.”

But Prentice said tissue from aborted babies is not necessary for scientific advancement. He said scientists today have “numerous alternatives, better both ethically and scientifically” than aborted baby body parts.

“It really is up to the scientists to bring the scientific community into the modern world of research that does not allow this horrific trafficking of baby body parts,” he told The Fix. “It is just better science as well as certainly better ethics for the scientific community…”

One horrific experiment at the university involved scalping second-trimester aborted babies and then implanting their scalps onto rodents to study the human immune system. University of Pittsburgh researchers published the results of the study in 2020 in the journal “Scientific Reports,” as well as photos that show tufts of babies’ hair growing on the rodents.

The Center for Medical Progress and several doctors, including one who supports abortion, also pointed to documents and statements from university officials that suggest some aborted babies’ hearts still may be beating when their organs are harvested for scientific research.

Last year, David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress, expressed doubt about the independence of the university’s investigation in an interview with The Fix.

“Tellingly, the University of Pittsburgh thinks that hiring a law firm somehow counts as an ‘independent’ review of their barbaric experiments with aborted baby body parts,” Daleiden said. “Anyone who wants a real investigation should look at the document requests nearly 100 congressional representatives made … concerning Pitt’s experiments on aborted babies.”

How are you praying for these unborn children? Share in the comments!

(Excerpt from Life News. Photo Credit: Unsplash)