Rep. Anna Luna Paulina, one of the most outspoken abortion rights opponents, disclosed that her husband invested up to $15,000 of stock in a biotechnology company that uses human embryonic stem cells for medical treatments.
Ironically, she and her husband, Andrew Gamberzky, are suing the government over the use of stem cells in developing COVID-19 vaccines. Her husband’s investment in the California-based company Lineage Cell Therapeutics is between $1,001 and $15,000.
According to its website, the company uses “specialized, terminally-differentiated human cells” to treat traumatic injuries, degenerative diseases, and cancers. The company also intends to “pioneer a new branch of medicine.”
Especially “one based on transplanting specific cell types to patients with serious medical conditions,” such as paralysis. Stem cell therapy, in general, offers great promise for people stricken with a variety of disorders.
But the use of embryonic stem cells, specifically, has for years caused doctors, scientists, bioethicists, and the religious to debate whether the potential for life-improving stem cell treatments outweighs what some consider wrong regardless of whether human embryos used would have ever been implanted or viable.
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Despite this, Luna and her husband allege in a lawsuit that the government violated their religious beliefs. “The government mandated that military members get COVID-19 vaccines, some of which utilized fetal cell lines in their development.”
The lawsuit, which includes the Department of Defense and the U.S. Air as defendants, seeks monetary damages for significant financial injury. This includes loss of healthcare, spousal benefits, and survivor benefits as provided for by the military.
The lawsuit said, “Plaintiff is unable to receive any of the COVID-19 vaccines due to what they believe and understand is a connection between these vaccines and their testing, development, or production using fetal cell lines.”
The lawsuit continued, “Plaintiffs hold the sincere religious beliefs that they must not take anything into their bodies that God has forbidden. This would alter their body functions, such as inducing the production of a spike protein in a manner not designed by God.”
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According to UCLA Health, “The COVID-19 vaccines do not contain aborted fetal cells.” UCLA’s reports suggest that Johnson & Johnson did use fetal cell lines. However, they did not use fetal tissue when producing their vaccine.
Pfizer and Moderna, on the other hand, used fetal cell lines to test their vaccines and make sure they work. The National Academy of Sciences states, “Cell lines are established by culturing fetal cells in such a way that they continue growing and multiplying in laboratory dishes.”
However, Luna has questioned using specific human stem cells in medical research. She called the use of stem cells for research “morally wrong.” She said, “It is no better than the Nazis” in terms of human testing.
Luna spokeswoman Edie Heipel stated that the congresswoman’s position on the issue is evident. She reported that Luna “has no and never had an affiliation to Lineage Cell Therapeutics. This includes owning stock.”
However, Heipel did not answer several follow-up questions, such as why Luna’s husband purchased the California-based company’s stock. Lauryn Fanguen, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, “Anna Paulina Luna is playing the name of the game—hypocrisy.”
“Time and time again, she says one thing and does another, lining her own pockets along the way,” Fanguen added. “Luna’s deeply-held moral beliefs quickly fall away when there’s profit to be made, and it’s hardly shocking.”
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