What's that on your face?

An organization called Children of God for Life has issued a disturbing news release (dated 10/27/09 and found here) about an anti-wrinkle cream produced using the cell lines of a male fetus electively aborted at 14 weeks gestational age. According to the article, the pharmaceutical company which produces the cream, Neocutis, focuses on production of skin care products.

Children of God for Life is reported to be a pharmaceutical industry watchdog. A major focus has been to call for pharmaceutical companies to produce vaccines without using cell lines from aborted fetuses. Until recently, they were unable to substantiate concerns that some companies were using cell lines from aborted fetal tissue to produce their cosmetics. The press release indicated that Neocutis openly acknowledged this, however.

Now I admit I was skeptical. I had trouble believing that a company would publicly admit to a production method that utilized cells derived from an aborted fetus. So I went to the website for Neocutis and poked around a bit. I found the following information under the heading of “technology” on the Neocutis site:

NEOCUTIS technology platform relies on the use of cultured fetal skin cells obtained from a cell bank for treating differing skin conditions.

The dedicated cell bank was originally established for wound healing and burn treatments using a single biopsy of donated fetal skin following a one-time medical termination.

The cultured cells can be used to produce skin constructs for wound healing or can be incorporated as cell lysate in a topical carrier for use in dermatology and skin care.

To date, the cultured cells originating from this cell bank are used in research and product development in the following areas:

• acute and chronic wound healing
• eczema and psoriasis, and
• vulvodynia, vulvar vestibulitis

Having developed a topical preparation for different skin conditions, the use of this preparation for daily skin care became apparent. Today this same cell bank also provides a lasting supply of cells for producing Neocutis’ proprietary skin care ingredient Processed Skin Cell Proteins (PSP®).

If you’re skeptical, too, follow this link.

The Neocutis products that use this technology include Bio-Gel, Journee, Bio-Serum, Prevedem, Bio Restorative Skin Cream and Lumiere. I don’t know how you feel about it, but I don’t want to use these products. I plan to avoid purchasing them (or, for that matter, any Neocutis products).

But the more disturbing question is this: how much do we know about how the products we use? And how can we become better informed?

To learn more about Children of God for Life, see their website.

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