LONDON, August 3, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Aborted babies are now available in a growing clandestine market in the United Kingdom. From speculators enticed by soaring prices to private museum owners, people are scanning the Internet in search of human body parts. In the United Kingdom human organs and entire fetuses are sold by medical institutions, often clandestinely, after being used for research or as educational material.
In an interview with LifeSiteNews.com, Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics, the pro-life group which first provided hard evidence exposing the market for aborted baby body parts, commented, “once you cross the line, where you see a child as a commodity, something you can remove if you have the money to do it, then this [trafficking in body parts by private individuals] is a natural extension.” He added, “if it is all right to kill a baby, then what is wrong with chopping up its body and selling it?” Recent legislation forbidding the disposal of body parts without the consent of patient or relatives is expected to be tightened under the Human Tissue Bill underway in British Parliament. The legislation, however, makes exceptions for medical institutions, which may dispose of body parts at will as long as they refrain from displaying them to the public. Owners are cautious and secretive about their human curiosities, aware that they are likely to be viewed with shock and disapproval. Will society always and everywhere condemn a practice as grisly and macabre as buying and selling pickled or mummified fetuses? Not according to Crutcher: “if the only consideration in abortion is ‘how does it affect me,’ then it doesn’t matter very much where babies’ bodies end up—even in a curiosity shop, or anywhere else for that matter.”
See related LifeSite coverage on the aborted baby body parts market www.lifesite.net/ldn/1999/aug/990818a.html jo