By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Disrespect for human life has reached a new low in China where pharmaceutical companies are allegedly grinding up the bodies of dead babies and using the remains to create “stamina-enhancing” pills.
The International Business Times (IBT) is reporting on a documentary produced by SBS TV, formerly known as Seoul Broadcasting Station, which documents the gruesome practice of drug manufacturers in China who buy the bodies of still born or aborted babies from hospitals and use them to make drugs. The bodies are placed in medical drying microwaves, then ground into powder which is then poured into capsules and sold as stamina boosters.
In the documentary, an undercover SBS TV team followed a source to a house in China where a woman said she had stored dead babies in her refrigerator as ingredients for the pills. The team purchased some pills directly from the woman and sent one to South Korea’s National Forensic Service, where DNA tests showed they were 99.7 percent human. IBT reported that even the baby’s gender could be identified and that the tests also revealed hair and nail particles in the powder.
“These babies deserve a decent burial; instead they are ground up for someone’s fountain-of-life elixir,” said ethicist Ben Mitchell, professor of moral philosophy at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, to the Baptist Press.
“It’s barbaric. Not only is this the logical conclusion of forfeiting the sanctity of human life, but it is also why we ought always to require pharmaceuticals to be produced in the light of day where everyone can see the source of their drugs.”
On August 10, The Global Times reported that China’s Ministry of Health said it has launched an investigation into SBS’ claims. “China has strict regulations on disposing of the remains of infants, fetuses and placentas,” health ministry spokesman Deng Haihua said at a news conference. “We are firmly against the trading of human bodies or organs.”
A South Korean embassy official also told the Times on condition of anonymity that the South Korean government is aware of the baby capsule reports and although they have not uncovered any evidence yet that it is true, they are investigating.
Writing for the pro-life organization Live Action, Thomas Peters, cultural director at the National Organization for Marriage called this story “gross and disturbing.”
” . . . (T)his sort of practice is the danger we run as a society when we cease to respect human life at all stages – we can be misled into treating unborn children like ‘raw material’ and not like the unique human beings they are from their first moment.”
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