Statement on the Use of Human Biological Material

3-21 Foundation Statement on the Use of Human Biological Material in Medical Research & Challenge to Other Research Funders

Wednesday, 08/5/2015 Cambridge, MA, USA

With the launch of its Ignition Program for funding scientific research, the 3-21 Foundation wishes to clearly articulate its ethical position regarding the use of human biological material in medical research that has been derived from an elective abortion. The 3-21 Foundation will not provide funding for any research or researcher that makes use of human embryonic or fetal tissue that has been obtained through an elective abortion.

All researchers who apply for funding from the Foundation must consent to this requirement as part of their application for funding. In addition, the Foundation will require in its agreements that the results of the projects it funds not be published in the same article as the results of other research that makes use of human embryonic or fetal cells or tissue. We believe that such research is inconsistent with our vision of a world that values the lives of those with Down syndrome.

The 3-21 Foundation is following the leadership set by the global Jerome Lejeune Foundation. Likewise, we do not accept a callous and utilitarian mentality toward human life such as that evidenced in recent videos released by the Center for Medical Progress and in other research using human biological material obtained through an elective abortion of a fetus with Down syndrome.

We call on other disability research funders in Down syndrome and beyond, to announce similar positions. The good intent of medical research to improve lives can never be served by the utilization of the weak and vulnerable as tools to that progress. To harvest material derived from an elective abortion for medical research reduces the human fetus to a commodity, and signals cooperation in the intentional destruction of vulnerable human life.

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