Brief ⁽¹⁾

The bill would prohibit a number of transactions involving fetal organs or tissue. Specifically, the bill would prohibit:

• �offering money or other inducements to a person to have an abortion for the medical, scientific, experimental, or therapeutic use of fetal organs or tissues;



• �offering or accepting any valuable consideration for fetal organs or tissues that result from an abortion; or



• �use of fetal organs or tissues for medical, scientific, experimental, or therapeutic use without the consent of the woman donating the tissue.

A pregnant woman's consent to donate fetal tissue could not be discussed or obtained prior to obtaining voluntary, informed consent for an abortion as required by the Woman's-Right-to-Know Act.

The bill specifically would not preclude payment for burial or the final disposition of fetal remains or payment for a pathological or postmortem examination or autopsy.

Violation of the act would be a severity level 2 nonperson felony. The maximum sentence for a conviction would be 123 months imprisonment, a fine of $300,000, or both.

The act would become effective upon publication in the Kansas Register.

Background

The Senate substitute bill was introduced after the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs was informed that a Missouri resident may be violating federal law by selling fetal tissue at a profit. The federal law prohibits those actions as they involve interstate commerce.

The Senate substitute bill is modeled after, but is not identical to, a Missouri law that prohibits the sale of fetal tissue. The penalty in the Senate substitute bill is similar to the penalty in federal law that imposes a maximum 10 years (120 months) imprisonment, a fine of $250,000 or at least twice the valuable consideration received, or both. A House Bill, 2000 HB 3034, also addresses the handling of fetal tissue.

The Senate Committee amended 1999 Substitute HB 2007 which would have amended existing law regarding abortion and reports about abortions that must be submitted to the Department of Health and Environment. The Committee's action on the 1999 bill came after the Committee recommended Senate Substitute for House Substitute for HB 2581 to the Senate, a bill which also would amend the state's abortion laws.

The fiscal note prepared for the original bill is not relevant to the Senate Substitute bill.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html