The above statement is the subject matter of a report which was broadcast by the BBC Radio 4 on December 18, 2006.

The report unearthed the sordid details of medical practices in the Ukraine, where babies are taken from their mothers to have their organs and stem cells harvested as part of a “sickening but highly lucrative” international trade.

Ukraine has become the main supplier to the global stem cell trade. Officially the cells are taken from aborted fetuses with the mothers’ consent. However, the reporter found substantial evidence which confirmed that hundreds of babies are “stolen” from their mothers to satisfy the demand for stem cells around the world.

By way of background information, the pursuit of research on stem cells is advocated by some scientists who believe that stem cells hold the key to finding a cure for major diseases.

The problem is that the primary source of stem cells is the embryo but the embryo is the outcome of conception and therefore must be treated as a person (human being).

For this reason the Church condemns the practice of stem cell research, inasmuch it requires, as a condition precedent, the taking of the life (killing) of a human person. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “it is immoral to produce embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material”

The source of the worldwide demand for stem cells are companies engaged in untested stem cell therapies. Prominent among the therapies are those which hold out the prospect of reversing the effects of ageing and more generally are recommended as a beauty treatment.

The author of the report discovered that one of the prominent clinics which offer these treatments is located in Barbados under the prestigious title the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IRM) The stem cells used in these techniques are bought by the IRM from the Ukraine.

The clinic’s method of treatment involves injecting patients with stem cells taken from babies aborted between seven to ten weeks old. Evidence suggests that the cells had in fact been harvested from full term babies without the consent from parents.

Emmanuel Community has obtained a report by Dr Brian Clowes Director of Human Life International (no stranger to Trinidad & Tobago) on a visit to IRM Barbados late last year. We reproduce below pertinent extracts from his report

“This interesting facility promises to make Barbados the ‘Embryonic Stem Cell Capital of the World.’ The IRM imports aborted 6-to 12-week pre-born baby parts from Ukraine, liquefies them into a kind of “pre-born puree”, then injects them directly into the arms or body organs of customers. According to the IRM, the pre-born’s cells use a kind of ‘radar’ to seek out diseased or damaged cells in the customer’s body and then repair them.

This procedure was developed at the Ukraine’s Institute of Cryobiology, which claims an astonishing 96 percent improvement rate in curing virtually every disease ever recorded. Of course, this extraordinary assertion is not documented anywhere in the medical literature.

Rich English and American women find their way to this remote complex in the Barbados highlands (at their own expense, of course) to be injected with fetal stem cells at US$25,000 per session. Barnett Suskind, the CEO of the IRM, says that “it’s the most natural form of healing there is. You think better, sleep better, look better”.

As pro-lifers, we object strongly to these procedures, which are nothing more or less than glorified high-tech cannibalism. Simply injecting people with ground-up pre-born babies does not make a proctologist, or anyone else, a stem cell expert.

The Vita Nova (the IRM) operation is trying to place itself as a leader in the exciting new world of stem cell technology and, like all other pro-abortion operations, depends upon ignorance of both the public and its patients to make its huge profits. 

Money doesn’t talk, it shouts, and loudly enough to drown out all objecting voices. The fetal stem cell injection industry is rife with fraud. This is natural whenever massive amounts of money can be made in a very short period of time with all the risk being borne by gullible patients.

The government of Barbados is complicit in this entire sordid affair by not bothering to investigate Vita Nova (IRM’s) operation.
Why should it?

A representative of Barbados Tourism Authority when questioned about IRM said that his island “has long been a destination for wellness and health because of its wonderful climate. We have a long tradition of people coming here to get well.” And, of course, spend lots of American dollars and British pounds!

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