China Uses Aborted Fetuses to Make Medications

AsiaNews August 10, 2011:
Chinese authorities are investigating allegations made in the South Korean press that human remains from Jilin province were illegally sold in South Korea where they were used for therapeutic purposes.
According to South Korean broadcaster SBS, some hospitals in China apparently sold aborted fetuses after they were turned into a "human-flesh capsule" containing remains. South Korean papers reported that these capsules were sold as medications for some incurable diseases at the cost of 800,000 won (US$ 750) per 100 capsules.
South Korean customs authorities asked prosecutors to look into the matter. The South Korean government announced that it would work with China to stop this “horrific” trade. Chinese officials said that they would take the necessary steps to end it, adding that China has “strict regulations” to handle the disposals of human remains.
Although investigations are underway, the fact that it involves aborted fetuses increases the credibility of the reports. Despite publicly stating its intention of softening its ‘one-child policy’, China’s Communist rulers have continued to enforce forcefully the law. Anyone who breaks it and cannot pay a fine is forced to abort.
Under traditional Chinese customs, couples are supposed to have a boy to take care of his parents when they are old. Hence, the problem of forced abortion is compounded by sex selection. The result is that every year, millions of baby girls are not born.
“In 2011, a year after China [. . .] vowed to bring sex ratios to a normal level, there are now 119 boys born for every 100 girls born. The gender gap has not closed, but widened,” wrote Reggie Littlejohn, who runs the Women’s Rights Without Frontiers website. “Make no mistake. China’s One Child Policy is enforced through forced abortion, forced sterilization and infanticide. [. . .] The One Child Policy is China’s war on women.”
Women and those who oppose China’s government pay the price for this war. The best-known case is that of blind activist Chen Guangcheng.
Released from prison in September 2010 after four years in jail, he said he was still subject to house arrest without charges or trial.
Convicted for destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic, the lawyer is in fact targeted by the authorities for his steadfast work on behalf of women and for his opposition to forced abortions, which are part and parcel of the family planning policy China adopted in the late 1970s.