Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Warning: this is thoroughly disturbing

Heard today in class: "There has been widespread speculation that human matter was used to make soap during the Nazi regime. The claims are probably false, but the concept is horrific." --my professor

Said today in class:"Let's not forget that human matter IS used in many cosmetics, even today: aborted babies may be present in the very shampoo you washed your hair with this morning."

Utter silence... let's just change the topic.

PS. To avoid these products, look for "collagen" or "collagen-enriched" on the label --you can read all about it here, or simply google "aborted baby cosmetic" Maybe it's time to graduate from a mere "not tested on animals" cosmetic campaign to a "baby-free" cosmetics campaign!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm horrified... but skeptical. Collagen is a very common tissue. It can be harvested from animals fairly easily, if I'm not mistaken. And probably in larger amounts and easier than from dead babies. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just that it might not be as prevalent as your references would have us believe.

Ruth said...

Hmm, you're putting all that aggie/bio knowledge to good use. Good point. A question my dad raised though: stem cells can be harvested from umbilical cords, yet the medical world (or lobbyists and politicians) feel the need to use embryos for this purpose. Why? The depraved reason behind this may be applicable to human collagen as well.
-I ought to have specified that animal/bovine collagen is indeed frequently used. If these sources are not specified, though, there's a chance that the source is human.
-The sale of aborted babies is estimated to be a multi-million dollar market
-There is significant medical and scholarly documentation of human-collagen-enriched cosmetics
-Prevalence is not so important as the fact that the practice does exist!

Anonymous said...

A corollary to my usual "people are stupid" theory of life is that if given the opportunity, people will be as vile as possible, even if the alternative is simple and easy. As you point out, the fact that the practice exists at all is thoroughly disgusting, never mind the prevalence. I would imagine that the sale of human embryos is mainly for research purposes as opposed to industrial use, though. Like I said, there's not a huge amount of collagen in a fetus.