HHS decertifies organ procurement network over harvesting allegations
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Department of Health and Human Services have decertified Kentucky’s Network for Hope organ-donation nonprofit after a federal investigation uncovered shocking allegations that organs were harvested from living patients. Dr. Marc Siegel joined Sandra Smith and John Roberts to discuss the probe, which identified 73 cases of premature organ recovery, including a 2021 incident in which a patient reportedly regained consciousness during surgery.
Separately, records obtained from UCLA through a California Public Records Act request filed on behalf of Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden include purchase orders and emails exchanged between the university and Cercle Allocation Services.
An internal UCLA order form places the procurement activity within the David Geffen School of Medicine’s Division of Hematology-Oncology and identifies the “Mouse Core.” UCLA removed researchers’ names and other identifying details from the documents.
The records reviewed by News Outlet do not show that UCLA, its researchers, procurement staff or other employees acted illegally or unethically in connection with the transactions.
FILE – Cercle supplies human fetal tissue for biomedical research. (Shane Collins, Northwestern University)
One UCLA purchase order covers seven individually numbered liver and thymus specimens at $765 each, for a total of $5,355. A second order lists five specimens dated Aug. 18, 2023, at the same per-unit price, totaling $3,825. Other UCLA orders also show a charge of $765 per specimen.
Cercle challenged the tax treatment on the orders and asked UCLA to issue revised documents. The company said the charges represented procurement services, not the sale of tissue, and warned that applying sales tax could wrongly suggest that the specimens themselves were being sold.
Cercle does provide human fetal tissue for biomedical research. Peer-reviewed studies have also identified the company as a source of human fetal liver tissue, offering independent support for the type of procurement operation described by CMP.
FILE – UCLA redacted the names and other identifying information of researchers from the record. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
CMP described the liver and thymus specimens listed in the UCLA orders as fetal tissue. News Outlet has not independently confirmed that the tissue in these specific transactions was fetal. The orders identify each item by organ type, sample number and date, but do not label the specimens as fetal.
The documents likewise do not prove that the payments were unlawful. Cercle maintained that the amounts were fees for procurement services rather than payments for the tissue itself.
Even so, the correspondence makes clear that Cercle was highly focused on how the transactions were characterized.
“The overriding issue is the use of terminology that we must not use due to their improper implication that we are selling taxable items, which we are not,” a Cercle accounts manager wrote in September 2023. “Due to the nature of our business we must be very careful and clear that we invoice fees for our procurement services,” the manager added.
The email stated that references to sales tax could suggest Cercle was “selling the items received,” which the company described as “illegal to sell.” Instead, Cercle directed UCLA to authorize payment for procurement services while linking each sample number and date to the $765 unit charge.
After Cercle raised the issue, UCLA prepared replacement purchase orders that removed or changed the disputed tax language, according to the correspondence.
David Daleiden, a defendant in an indictment stemming from a secret investigation of his undercover videos of Planned Parenthood, stands in a Houston courtroom, Feb. 4, 2016. (David J. Phillip / Ap)
In one email, Cercle said a July invoice totaling $5,355 for procurements made on three dates had already been “processed and paid.” The company also asked UCLA to replace additional orders containing tax language, including one for five Aug. 18 procurements valued at $3,825.
Federal law bars knowingly acquiring, receiving or transferring human fetal tissue for “valuable consideration” when the transaction affects interstate commerce. The law does, however, permit “reasonable payments” connected to transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control and storage.
The records examined by News Outlet do not demonstrate that Cercle or UCLA violated those federal restrictions.
Daleiden argues that the documents nevertheless raise questions about whether the identical $765 charges were legitimate reimbursements for procurement-related expenses.
He pointed to the uniform $765 amount UCLA assigned to individual specimens on the purchase orders, including multiple organs listed on the same date. Daleiden told News Outlet he believes the structure raises questions about whether the payments reflected the procurement-related costs permitted under federal law.
Documents reviewed by News Outlet do not contain Cercle’s invoices or underlying cost calculations and do not establish whether the $765 amount exceeded reasonable procurement-related expenses.
Daleiden also said UCLA did not produce Cercle’s invoices in response to the public records request.
The May 2025 request sought the original and most recent materials associated with UCLA IRB No. 11-002504, as well as records and communications from 2023 forward between the authors of a specified UCLA study and Advanced Bioscience Resources or Cercle. The request covered records including emails, text messages, notes and fetal-tissue logs.
UCLA later said its departments had completed their search and that the September 2026 production represented the final batch of non-exempt responsive records. The university said it redacted certain researcher identities because of concerns about threats and harassment involving sensitive research.
Records also show the UCLA-Cercle relationship continued into 2025.
A February 2025 Cercle ticket involving UCLA was titled “Liver and brain.” Cercle responded March 3 that it had been “unable to fulfill your request today” and canceled the ticket. The records do not specify that the requested tissue was fetal or establish that any brain tissue was ultimately procured or transferred.
Daleiden has spent years investigating fetal-tissue procurement after CMP released undercover videos involving Planned Parenthood officials in 2015. His recording operation later became the subject of a California criminal case.
Kamala Harris’ office opened the investigation while she was California attorney general. Charges were later filed under Attorney General Xavier Becerra. In April 2026, a California judge dismissed the final charge and expunged the case.
The records reviewed by News Outlet do not establish that the UCLA-Cercle transactions violated federal law. UCLA and Cercle have not been accused or charged by authorities with illegal conduct in connection with the transactions reflected in the public records obtained by CMP.
UCLA and Cercle Allocation Services did not respond to News Outlet’s requests for comment.
