China Still Selling “Health Pills” Made From Aborted, Dead Babies

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 7, 2012   |   12:16PM   |   Washington, DC

News reports today are focusing on an update of a South Korean SBS TV documentary released last August that focuses on Chinese pharmaceutical companies selling “health pills” made from the bodies of babies dying in abortion and miscarriages.

Chinese hospitals and abortion clinics are notifying pharmaceutical companies when a baby dies. The companies purchase the bodies of the deceased children and reportedly store them in private refrigerators of families who are paid to help the companies  avoid suspicion by locating the bodies off site.

The documentary says the highly-secretive process involves putting the babies’ bodies in a medical drying microwave and grinding them into pills. The ground baby powder is then placed in a capsule and sold as a stamina enhancer, according to the documentary.

The South Korean television crew acquired the dead baby capsules and ran DNA tests on them — finding they were 99.7 percent human. The tests also found hair and nail remnants and the results were able to identify the sex of the baby whose life ended.

That information was revealed in August and, the London Daily Mail newspaper today reports that more than 17,000 of the pills have been brought into South Korea since the August 2011 report aired.

The discoveries since last August have shocked even hardened customs agents who have pledged to strengthen inspections. Chinese officials are understood to have been aware of the trade and have tried to stop the capsules being exported but thousands of packets of them have been smuggled through to South Korea.

Health authorities in Asia are concerned that if the powdered foetus trade is allowed to continue the capsules will find their way onto the Internet and be sold to gullible or sick desperate people in other parts of the world.

The South Korean Customs Service said today that it had heightened its searches of suspicious packages being brought into the country by travelers from China in an attempt to stamp out the sickening trade. According to customs agents, 35 smuggling attempts have been made since August last year involving more than 17,000 capsules disguised as ‘stamina boosters’.

A number of smugglers who have been detained by the South Korean authorities have claimed they did not know what the ingredients were or the manufacturing process behind them.

The newspaper indicates some of the babies whose bodies are used in the pills reportedly come from “dying rooms” where newborn infants are left to die by families who can’t comply with the one-child policy China institutes. Others come from the bodies of babies killed in the more than 13 million abortions the nation does annually to reduce its population.

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The Wall Street Journal also profiled the practice today in a news story and said representatives from the China Ministry of Health did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It also highlighted the practices and beliefs of Asians that allow this grisly trade to flourish.

Demand for the pills has been driven by the belief that the fetus is a “tonic” for disease, the China Daily cited the documentary as saying. Consumption of human placentas is more common in China, where it is believed to help revive blood supply and circulation, according to the China Daily report. A report in the Global Times, a tabloid published by the official People’s Daily, said the human flesh pill were used to enhance sexual performance.

Pills smuggled into Korea have come from China’s northern cities of Yanji, Jilin, Qingdao and Tianjin, the Korean customs statement said.

The Korean customs office has requested an examination of ingredients to determine if a legal import channel can be established for non-hazardous health supplements from China, the statement said.