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.
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."
With European regulations to control cosmetic treatments such as collagen not expected for several years, doctors and politicians say the discovery highlights the dangers faced by the increasing number of people seeking to improve their looks. Apart from the ethical concerns, there is also the potential risk of infection.
The House of Commons' Select Health Committee is to examine the regulatory system and may launch an investigation and question ministers about the need for immediate new controls.
"I am sure that the committee will want to look at this," said Kevin Barron, its Labour chairman. "This is something everyone in society will be very concerned about."
Plastic surgeons are also concerned about the delay in introducing regulations to control the cosmetic-treatments industry.
It is unclear whether any of the "aesthetic fillers" such as collagen available in the UK or on the Internet are supplied by the company, which cannot be identified for legal reasons. It is also unclear whether collagen made from prisoners' skin is in the research stage or is in production.
However, the Guardian has learned that the company has exported collagen products to the UK in the past.
An agent told customers it had also exported to the US and European countries, and that it was trying to develop fillers using tissue from aborted fetuses.
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.
"A lot of the research is still carried out in the traditional manner using skin from the executed prisoner and aborted fetus, " the agent told the researcher.
This material, he said, was being bought from "biotech" companies based in Heilongjiang Province and was being developed elsewhere in China.
He suggested that the use of skin and other tissues harvested from executed prisoners was not uncommon.
"In China it is considered very normal and I was very shocked that Western countries can make such a big fuss about this," he said.
Speaking from his office in northern China, he added: "The government has put some pressure on all the medical facilities to keep this type of work in low profile."
The agent said his company exported to the west via Hong Kong.
"We are still in the early days of selling these products, and clients from abroad are quite surprised that China can manufacture the same human collagen for less than 5 percent of what it costs in the West," he said.
Skin from prisoners used to be even less expensive, he said.
"Nowadays there is a certain fee that has to be paid to the court," he said.
The agent's admission comes after an inquiry into the cosmetic surgery industry in Britain, commissioned by the Department of Health, pointed to the need for new regulations controlling collagen treatments and the use of cadavers for cosmetic treatments.
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