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Wednesday November 17, 2010


Grisly remains of aborted babies found in Thai Buddhist temple

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

BANGKOK, Thailand, November 17, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Police in Thailand have uncovered the remains of more than 300 aborted babies hidden inside a Buddhist temple in Thailand’s capital city of Bangkok.

Police chief Sumeth Ruangswasdi said they had been called to investigate a strong smell in the Wat Phai Ngern temple, and discovered a total of 348 fetal remains wrapped in plastic bags and newspaper in a mortuary storage area, according to an AP report.

Police Colonel Metee Rakphan told AFP that plastic bags were found “with fetal corpses inside hidden in the storehouse of the temple.”

“We assume that they were from illegal abortion clinics, and we are now investigating,” he said.

Abortion is illegal in Thailand with the exception of cases in which the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother, or if the pregnancy resulted from rape.

Buddhist temples in Thailand routinely perform cremation ceremonies, and also store bodies awaiting cremation in special storage areas that are usually refrigerated.

Suthep Chabangbon, 46, a mortician at the temple, was taken into custody and afterward confessed to police that he had been paid by several clinics to secretly dispose of the aborted children.

A spokesman at the Wat Phrayakrai police station told the media that forensic police are continuing the investigation at the temple and are expecting to discover more fetal remains.

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