Doctors say Pitt statements point to possibility organs extracted from live fetuses; school denies charge

Statements from the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) indicate one of its federally funded research projects utilized organs that might have been extracted from live fetuses, several scholars and doctors have said.

Pitt referenced a long list of organs, "includ[ing] liver, heart, gonads, legs, brain, genitourinary tissues including kidneys, ureters and bladders." The last three were a focus for the research project, known as GUDMAP, for which Pitt was seeking funding. Fetal tissue research has been a controversial subject for Pitt as it recently attracted scrutiny over an experiment that involved grafting fetal scalps onto rodents. But the issue stretches beyond the university as fetal tissue is extracted through abortion techniques that have raised anti-abortion activists' concerns about live births and potential violations of tissue-trafficking law.  One part, among others, from the released documents sounded alarm bells for Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden. In positioning itself as a potential "hub" for fetal tissue, Pitt told NIH it could minimize "ischemia time … to ensure the highest quality biological specimens."