A bill introduced in the Oklahoma Legislature has some folks scratching their heads, as it prohibits "the manufacture or sale of food or products which use aborted human fetuses."

Since the bill was introduced late last week by State Sen. Ralph Shortey, a Republican from Oklahoma City, corners of the Internet have been buzzing with the news, as people try to figure out two things: 1) is this real; and 2) is there any reason the bill might be needed?

News of the bill was first reported by the AP and The Daily O'Collegian, a student newspaper at Oklahoma State University. It sparked a lively debate in the O'Collegian's readers' comments section, which is connected to Facebook.

The AP and the O'Collegian say that Shortey didn't respond to calls for comment. Two calls from NPR to the senator's office went to voicemail and were not returned. But Tulsa radio station KRMG managed to get in touch with him to ask about the legislation, Senate Bill 1418.

The senator says that his research shows there are companies in the food industry that have used human stem cells to help them research and develop products, including artificial flavorings.

"I don't know if it is happening in Oklahoma, it may be, it may not be. What I am saying is that if it does happen then we are not going to allow it to manufacture here," Shortey tells KRMG's Nicole Burgin.

To that end, his proposed statute reads, "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."

My own research suggests that Shortey may have noticed a boycott directed at PepsiCo, which since 2010 has worked with flavor research firm Senomyx to develop sweeteners and other flavorings.

Based in San Diego, Senomyx has been accused of using proteins derived from human embryonic kidney cells in its research, which has been used by many large food companies. An article in the Miami New Times summarizes those claims, notes the company's denial of them — and also notes that in 2003, the company filed a patent for "recombinant methods for expressing a functional sweet taste receptor."

That patent, for what is essentially an automated taste test, was granted in 2008. It mentions HEK 293, or Human Embryonic Kidney 293, a widely available cell line that was originally cultured in the early 1970s from a human embryo in the Netherlands.

Read on

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/01/20/145539661/state-bill-outlaws-use-of-fetuses-in-food-industry-meets-visceral-reaction

I think this needs looking into on a nationwide scale. Is my Coke Zero sweetened with human fetus?

Lol. Sounds like news to make news to me.

Lol. Sounds like news to make news to me.

Isn't that prettymuch what news is anymore??

Haha. Guess so. Fetus food sells.

Damn it. THere' goes my entrepeneurship

*Looks at can of Diet Coke sitting on desk and slowly back away from the can and heads to the bathroom

I hate to say that can't be true, but who knows. Who knows anymore what we put in our mouth. Is a steak really just a steak? Is a chicken strip, just chicken? Or is that peepee...really just a peepee?

Well, there is already tons of different things in all or food(not just packaged stuff, all of it), so it wouldn't be suprising at all.

Heck they taste like chicken...

I don't think it's a laughing matter at all. I immediately think of Mad Cow Disease. We still don't know how that originated, but there are some theories:

The most popular theory is that cattle, which are vegetarian, were fed meal containing sheep remains, passing scrapie from sheep to cows, where it evolved into a cow-specific disease. Another theory is that cows developed the disease spontaneously, without catching it from another species.

However, a pair of British scientists now proposes the origin may be the bones of people infected with classical CJD, which they theorize ended up in cattle feed imported from South Asia.

Britain imported hundreds of thousands of tons of whole bones, crushed bones, and carcass parts to be used for fertilizer and animal feed during the 1960s and 1970s. Nearly half of that came from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, said the scientists, led by Alan Colchester, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Kent in England.

''In India and Pakistan, gathering large bones and carcasses from the land and from rivers has long been an important local trade for peasants," the scientists wrote. ''Collectors encounter considerable quantities of human as well as animal remains as a result of religious customs."

Hindus believe remains should be disposed of in a river, preferably the Ganges.

All the crap they put in food now.. Cows pumped full of hormones, steroids, chemicals, plants, vegetables, herbs, everything being treated with growth hormones, pesticides... everything having preservatives added, all food is processed with some sort of chemical/hormone now adays, even "organic" food is never truly organic. Water supplies being treated with chemicals, it's no surprise all the diseases and the overall decline in wellness of the human race.. heck add a sedentary lifestyle... I am all for living on an island somewhere hunting and growing my own food because you never know what you are eating in this day and age.. So much filled and crap put into foods its ridiculous because all these corporations trying to make a quick buck by selling subpar food which has been treated and altered to taste like the real thing, if we even know what "pure" food tastes like!