What's the big deal?

hmm.. "what's the big deal?" as the title goes.. wellz, using a dead person's skin and aborted feotus for cosmetic purposes is the BIG DEAL here..

Was reading Today and came by this article.. I am appalled.. very appalled.. China people are.. hmmm.. not that I think bad of them or anything (must be careful, these days u'll never know when u'll get sued for anything you said on a wimp..), but the scruples of the Chinese businessman are really questionable.. We keep hearing news that businessman in China and Taiwan use strong chemicals to preserve food, irregardless of the health hazzards that they post to the consumers.. now this..

Excerpts from the article..
Company harvests executed convicts' skin for research and wonders what the fuss is all about.

An agent told customers that it was trying to develop fillers using tissue from aborted foetuses.

When approached by the newspaper's researcher, the agent said: "A lot of the research is still carried out in the traditional manner using skin from the executed prisoner and aborted foetus.".

And here we are, complaining about companies using animals as test subjects.. and there they are, using dead humans for experiments.. worse, they develop collagen fillers.. from dead man's skin and aborted feotuses.. oh my gosh *faints*

where's the basic respect for our dead? I always thought Chinese are respectful of our dead, we even pray to them to help bless us.. so what happened? I know, the dead is dead, let's not waste their bodies and make something out of it. Even if you bury them, they'll just rot and go to waste.. that's true.. In a closed world, all resources are precious.. but.. but..

I was still ok when I read they used executed prisoner's skin (I wonder who have the gross task of harvesting them).. but aborted feotus?! some of the prisoners committed henious crimes and deserves to die, so let them be useful to society after their death is acceptable.. but babies.. damn it.. I still cant get over that..

But come to think of it, who gave the company the permission to make use of the dead bodies, it's mentioned in the article that the parts are brought from this biological company.. so who are these people who had died? where are their families? dun they have something to say? or are the bodies only those who dun have anyone to claim after being executed? And what's stopping the company from buying fresh bodies from god knows where..

The most famous gruesome serial killers came from the background where bodies were highly prized as cadavars for medical studies. Anyone can jus bring a body into the clinic and sell it to the doctors.. after stumbling upon a dead body and managing to sell it for a high prize, these two brits (if I'm not wrong.. saw a documentary on them b4 but cant remember their names already) started "hunting" for more "dead bodies" and killed quite a number of people before they were caught.. they even had their special method to kill.. pinching the nose and using the plam of their hands to keep the mouth shut. This way, the victim cannot scream and soon suffocates.. *shivers*

Even if i can overlook the fact that they use executed prisoners, I cannot overlook the fact that aborted feotus are used.. first of all, it's scary to think about how old all the feotus are.. the most common type of abortion involves pregnancy at around 10-16 weeks (or somewhere there.. vague figures), at this point of time, the feotus is still pretty small, so the doctors are able to use a vacuum to suck the feotus and the placenta out.. normally the feotus would be ripped apart by the strong vacuum.. sorry for grossing anyone out at this point.. but I seriously doubt these parts are of use to the company in question. They are too small and too tedious to extract from the rest of the .. .. ..

haiz.. I'm pro-choice, but this.. ..

My guess is that the company do experiments on older feotuses, those that are say 20 weeks older or more.. Remember all those gross pictures where this Chinese man was eating a baby the size of a small kitten? It's my speculation, but such feotuses are bigger and to me, more parts and such could be harvested..

For such abortions, at many times artificial birth is induced.. a lethal salt solution is injected into the womb and the baby dies, the body will then proceed to induce birth and the woman gives birth to a stillborn. This kinda abortion is risky and to me, unacceptable. I'm pro-choice, but there's a huge difference from a 10 week old abortion and a 20~30 week old abortion. Life is not life if it cannot sustain itself, a premature 6 months old baby can survive outside the womb but not a 10 week old feotus.

What I'm amazed at is how they get hold of such feotues. Birth is special to every woman, whether or not they like it.. where on earth do they find woman who are willing to give up their aborted babies.. or are the rights of such woman waived and the rights to the feotuses belongs to the hospital which did the operation?

Come to think of it, how do hospitals dispose of aborted feotuses? Where do their bottled specimens come from?

To me, my main gripe is lack of basic respect to the dead. Prisoners aside, those babies who were supposed to be born into the world and lead a happy life.. they already had their lives cut short through a myraid of reasons, do we really have to continue to abuse their dead bodies??

Some can argue that many tribes do the same thing, they eat their dead.. but that is different coz they do it out of respect for the dead.. the company in question did it for profits. It's not even the nobel cause of advancement of science, but the profit of cosmetic beauty.

It's sad to know that such things are happening in the world.. I'm sad for all the babies that get no peace even in death.

disclaimer: I dun think I got all my facts right.. and i dun have the mood to go check them.. so take it with a pinch of salt if you like..

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