An Oklahoma lawmaker has proposed legislation to ban any use of fetuses in food in one of the more bizarre twists in the emotive US battle over abortion.
The bill comes after wild rumors began circulating online and among anti-abortion groups that soft drink giant Pepsi was using aborted fetuses in its products. The company has denounced the urban legend as completely false.
“PepsiCo does not conduct or fund research that utilizes any human tissue or cell lines derived from embryos,” company spokesman Peter Land said on Thursday.
The rumors were originally triggered by a patent application by a Pepsi supplier which cited the use of the HEK293 cell line in developing processes for an artificial taste-tester.
Originally derived from the kidneys of an aborted fetus in the 1970s, HEK293 is an easy-to-clone line of cells widely used in biotech research.
Oklahoma State Senator Ralph Shortey said he had researched the issue for about a year and is concerned there are no rules preventing the use of embryonic stem cells or fetal tissue in food and other products.
He introduced the bill in order to raise public awareness and prevent companies from engaging in any such “immoral” practices in his central plains state.
“It is not like I think companies are chopping up fetuses and using them as ingredients in food,” Shortey said in a telephone interview.
However, Shortey said the patent is proof that the supplier — Senomyx — has crossed a moral line by using “kidneys from aborted fetuses” as “taste receptors” to see how the cells respond to different artificial flavoring.
Biotech firm Senomyx did not return requests for a comment on the issue, neither did the US Food and Drug Administration.
Shortey’s draft legislation, which will go before the Oklahoma Senate next month, states: “No person or entity shall manufacture or knowingly sell food or any other product intended for human consumption which contains aborted human fetuses in the ingredients or which used aborted human fetuses in the research or development of any of the ingredients.”
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
With a monthly pension barely sufficient to buy 15 eggs or a small bag of rice, Cuba’s elderly people struggle to make ends meet in one of Latin America’s poorest and fastest-aging countries. As the communist island battles its deepest economic crisis in three decades, the state is finding it increasingly hard to care for about 2.4 million inhabitants — more than one-quarter of the population — aged 60 and older. Sixty is the age at which women — for men it is 65 — qualify for the state pension, which starts at 1,528 pesos per month. That is less than US$13
RSS