Ben Carson defends research paper involving aborted fetal tissue

Neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson went on Facebook Thursday night to address revelations that some of his past tumor research involved tissue taken from aborted babies.

On Wednesday, doctor and author Jen Gunter revealed on her blog that Carson co-authored a 1992 study of colloid cysts that examined tissues “obtained from two fetuses aborted at the ninth and 17th week of gestation,” according to the paper.

“His name is on the paper so that means he had a substantive role in the research and supports the methods and findings,” wrote Gunter, who supports legal abortion. “How does one explain this given Carson’s stand on fetal tissue research?”

Carson, who has criticized Planned Parenthood for collecting tissue from aborted babies, wrote Thursday neither he nor his co-authors in the 1992 study “had anything to do with abortion or what Planned Parenthood has been doing.”

According to Carson, his role in the study was only to supply tumors he had removed from his patients. The study involved comparing tumorous tissue samples with normal tissue samples under a microscope—something pathologists do in order to “gain clues” about tumors, Carson wrote.

As it turned out, those normal tissue samples had been obtained from abortions, although Carson emphasizes he was not involved in obtaining the tissue.

“Research hospitals across the country have microscope slides of all kinds of tissue to compare and contrast,” he wrote. “The fetal tissue that was viewed in this study by others was not collected for this study. I am sickened by the attack that I, after having spent my entire life caring for children, had something to do with aborting a child and harvesting organs.”

Earlier on Thursday, Carson answered questions about the research paper from reporters while on the campaign trail in New Hampshire.

“We have banked material in the pathology lab from people from every age—from day one of conception to 120 years old. Those specimens are available for people who want to do comparisons,” Carson told CNN. “To not use the tissue that is in a tissue bank, regardless of where it comes from, would be foolish. Why would anybody not do that?”

Carson has emphasized his pro-life views during his presidential campaign: On his website, he states, “Human life begins at conception.”

The neurosurgeon’s involvement in the 1992 study may suggest it is difficult even for researchers who consider themselves pro-life to avoid involvement in a fetal tissue trade that has been largely supplied for decades by abortions. Scientists who need “control tissue” for their research often turn to specimen banks that stock thousands of tissue samples, many of which may come from abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.

Technicians can collect fetal tissue from miscarriages as well, but that is more difficult because the baby’s death is not scheduled.

Carson told CNN’s Jake Tapper in July that fetal tissue isn’t necessary for medical research: “Virtually everything that can be attributed to progress by using fetal tissue can also use other types of tissue.”