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Even Larry Niven didn't take it this far.
Sep. 13th, 2005 12:34 pmA 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.
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".
The Guardian article's source was an agent of the company, which has, they say, exported collagen products to Britain in the past, although they do not know whether it is currently doing so.
When formally approached by the Guardian, the agent denied the company was using skin harvested from executed prisoners. However, he had already admitted it was doing precisely this during a number of conversations with a researcher posing as a Hong Kong businessman.
If true, I can't see this being good for the kipperlips industry (errr . . . you have all seen my Mick Jagger impression, haven't you?) - but the question, of course, is whether it's true. There will be strenuous denials from people I wouldn't trust to speak my weight, of course, but being morally flexible in general doesn't prove anyone's lying in a particular case. One informal chat isn't solid proof. One to watch. There have, of course, been many stories about organ and tissue harvesting from the Chinese capital punishment program, and from (Baathist) Iraqi jails also (while they were nominally our friends back in the Eighties, IIRC). I've not come across allegations about cosmetic products before, though.
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".
The Guardian article's source was an agent of the company, which has, they say, exported collagen products to Britain in the past, although they do not know whether it is currently doing so.
When formally approached by the Guardian, the agent denied the company was using skin harvested from executed prisoners. However, he had already admitted it was doing precisely this during a number of conversations with a researcher posing as a Hong Kong businessman.
If true, I can't see this being good for the kipperlips industry (errr . . . you have all seen my Mick Jagger impression, haven't you?) - but the question, of course, is whether it's true. There will be strenuous denials from people I wouldn't trust to speak my weight, of course, but being morally flexible in general doesn't prove anyone's lying in a particular case. One informal chat isn't solid proof. One to watch. There have, of course, been many stories about organ and tissue harvesting from the Chinese capital punishment program, and from (Baathist) Iraqi jails also (while they were nominally our friends back in the Eighties, IIRC). I've not come across allegations about cosmetic products before, though.
