BUDAPEST, Hungary, May 15, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Eight people were found guilty recently in the City Court of Budapest, Hungary for plotting to sell embryonic stem cells derived from aborted children on the black market for use in cosmetics.
Police arrested nine people in July 2009 for using embryonic stem cells and tissues from aborted children for commercial gain.
The case centered on illegal procedures at a Kaposvár plastic surgery clinic in southwestern Hungary, where hundreds of patients had agreed to be injected with the embryonic cells and tissue for $25,000 per treatment.
Defendants got large monetary fines or prison sentences, each determined by the individual’s degree of involvement in the crime. The clinic receptionist was the only defendant to avoid criminal charges since there was no proof she was aware of the illegal activity going on.
Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) international deputy director applauded the ruling, and stressed the importance of value of human life in its earliest stages.
“Any baby deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, not as a commodity for commercial gain,” Roger Kiska said. “We commend the court for ruling strongly against this horrific and inhuman practice and outlawing this kind of hideous black market.
“A civilized society values the precious lives of children and does not reduce them to commodities in elective cosmetic procedures,” he said.
An ADF brief on the case quoted European law acknowledging that life begins at conception.
“The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that, in the context of European patent law, life begins from the moment of conception,” it stated, and human embryos cannot be used for “industrial or commercial purposes.”
“The use of embryonic stem cells and tissue in a way in which violates the human dignity of the unborn child is criminally unacceptable,” it said as well, and further, “the gross negligence involved in the treatments and utter disdain for both the human life of the aborted children or the clients, all for the sole purpose of financial profit, should be punished with the most serious sentences available to this court.”
The Hungarian case wasn’t the first instance when cells from aborted children have been used in cosmetics.
A San Francisco company was found in 2012 to be selling cosmetic and dermatological products from aborted fetal tissue, and a number of U.S. food and soda companies were also found in the past to have used the cells in flavor testing.