SB 422

Generally, this bill bans the sale of fetal body parts, regulates certain research

on fetal body parts, and requires the final disposition of fetal body parts. This bill

also requires the Department of Health Services to request information from

umbilical cord blood banks on creating a public cord blood collection operation.

Under the bill, fetal body parts are cells, tissue, organs, or other parts of an unborn

child that are obtained after and as the result of an elective abortion, except for

cultured cells and except for cells, tissue, or organs from an aborted fetus if the

abortion occurred before the effective date of the bill.

Current law prohibits a person from knowingly and for valuable consideration

acquiring, receiving, or otherwise transferring a human organ. Current federal law

prohibits a person from knowingly acquiring, receiving, or otherwise transferring,

in interstate commerce, any fetal tissue for valuable consideration. The bill prohibits

any person from knowingly and for valuable consideration acquiring, receiving, or

otherwise transferring a fetal body part and from knowingly using, for research, a

fetal body part that is provided or received for valuable consideration. The bill

prohibits knowingly acquiring or receiving any fetal body part for research from a

for-profit entity, an abortion clinic, or an entity that has as its primary function

obtaining fetal tissue for sale. The bill prohibits the altering of the timing, method,

or procedures used to terminate a woman's pregnancy solely for the purpose of

obtaining a fetal body part for research. The bill also prohibits a woman's attending

physician who obtains a fetal body part from being involved in performing research

on the fetal body part.

A person who uses or receives a fetal body part for research is required by the

bill to obtain written documentation that the entity that provided the fetal body part

did not obtain the fetal body part for valuable consideration and to maintain that

written documentation for seven years. Before using a fetal body part in research,

an institutional review board must review the documentation from the entity that

provided the fetal body part to determine that informed consent was obtained in

accordance with federal law and that other requirements specified in the bill are met.

The bill also exempts from criminal or civil liability or charges of unprofessional

conduct a person who conscientiously objects to participation in research utilizing a

fetal body part that violates that person's moral or religious beliefs.

The bill requires that a physician who performs or induces an abortion in this

state arrange for the final disposition of the fetal body parts. Final disposition, under

the bill, means the disposition of fetal body parts by burial, interment, entombment,

cremation, or incineration.