Remember that really icky story about South Korean dead baby pill smugglers I wrote about awhile back? It was a quick little bit based off of a Daily Mail report discussing how South Korean customs officials had busted a bunch of people cruising around with stamina pills that were 99.7 percent ground fetus. It was pretty horrific, but it seemed like another chance to discuss another facet of traditional Chinese medicine, which drives a whole lot of wildlife smuggling.The Chinese Ministry of Health has since vigorously denied that it has found any baby pill smugglers domestically. According to a Xinhua report, the MInistry of Health told local authorities around China to conduct “detailed surveys” to search for baby pills after the first South Korean report dropped in August of last year. The Health Ministry said they found no evidence of the existence of any dead fetus pills, and stated that China has very strict rules on the handling, transport, and disposal of fetal remains.That led to a scathing post on Chinese culture blog Rectified.name that traces the history of cannibalism rumors used as slander in regards to traditional medicine. It’s interesting to note that while “Ming Dynasty scholar Li Shizhen devoted a whole section in his monumental Compendium of Materia Medica to various human parts that can be used for medical purposes” (within strict boundaries), “in the 19th century, missionaries in China were accused of purchasing babies to make medicine and lurid tales of kidnapping and mutilation for the purposes of medicine or sorcery can be found in many cultural and historical contexts.”The initial reports may or may not be correct — honestly, at this point, it feels like political squabbling has taken over the whole discussion, although I have to say the Chinese Ministry of Health’s response to rather damning reports is pretty darn soft, which has me leaning heavily towards trusting the veracity of the South Korean reports. Also, the Taiwanese guy who just got caught selling a bunch of dead babies online suggests that there is certainly a demand for fetuses, although it’s impossible to tell if he’s part of a greater demand or if he heard the pill rumors and tried to cash in.In any case, the most interesting takeaway from the Rectified.name post is that the discussion is overlooking the real issue: Why do these pills exist (in reality or the public imagination) in the first place? From the piece:While the current media and online furor could — and probably should — be dismissed as one of the many rumors and otherworldly accusations floating around the Internet, it does point to a striking failure of science as it relates to traditional Chinese medicine. How to separate the quackery from the possible, particularly in regards to practices which so abominable as to be nearly unbelievable, but also debunking medical myths involving the use of ingredients — such as bear bile, rhino horn, and tiger portions — which do great harm to biodiversity and the protection of endangered species.Look at it this way: if the pills are real, that means people are actually convinced they work well enough to demand something so terrible (and illegal). And even if they’re not, the fact that so many people (including myself) assumed that they were true says a lot about how we view traditional medicine. There are indeed aspects of traditional medicine that seem to be valuable.But when our rarest and most important — don’t forget that large mammals like rhinos and elephants have huge, irreplaceable positive effects on biodiversity in ecosystems — animals are getting poached (not to mention the fetuses!) for “remedies” that are nothing more than incredibly costly placebos, it’s clear that there’s a huge disconnect between what people know and good science. What’s the solution? That’s the million dollar question of course, but as usual the recipe seems simple: more research, better education, and a little more skepticism from everyone involved so that hopefully we can all cut down on some of the traditional medicine hype.Follow Derek Mead on Twitter: @drderekmead.
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