Who Needs Animals When You Have Prisoners
From the Guardian via Taipei Times:
A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.I guess the Chinese position is that since the convicts are dead already, might as well make use of the corpses.Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is "traditional" and nothing to "make such a big fuss about" [boldface mine].
Chinese criminal legal reform has a long way to go.
UPDATE (09/16/2005):One Free Korea is also blogging this issue, but seems skeptical about it.