42 U.S.C. § 289g–2 — Prohibitions regarding human fetal tissue

(a) Buying tissue. It is illegal for anyone to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer human fetal tissue in exchange for payment or other valuable consideration, if the transfer affects interstate commerce. (b) Directed donations for transplant. It is illegal to solicit, or to knowingly acquire, receive, or accept, a donation of human fetal tissue meant for transplant into another person, when three things are all true: the donation affects interstate commerce, the tissue came from an induced abortion, and at least one of the following happened — the donation was made because of a promise that the tissue would go to a recipient the donating woman named; the tissue was transplanted into a relative of the donating woman; or the person soliciting or accepting the tissue paid valuable consideration toward the cost of the abortion itself. (c) Tissue from pregnancies created for research. It is illegal for anyone engaged in interstate commerce to solicit, or knowingly acquire, receive, or accept, a donation of human fetal tissue while knowing that the pregnancy was deliberately started to produce that tissue. It is also illegal to knowingly acquire, receive, or accept tissue or cells from a human embryo or fetus that was gestated inside a nonhuman animal. (d) Penalties. Anyone who violates subsection (a), (b), or (c) can be fined under title 18, or imprisoned for up to 10 years, or both. But if the violation was of subsection (a) or of paragraph (b)(3) — paying for abortion costs — the fine must be at least twice the amount of valuable consideration the person received. (e) Definitions. "Human fetal tissue" has the same meaning given in section 289g–1(g) of this title. "Interstate commerce" has the same meaning given in section 321(b) of title 21. "Valuable consideration" does not include reasonable payments for transporting, implanting, processing, preserving, quality-controlling, or storing the tissue — those payments are not banned.