Aborted Ukrainian foetuses are being smuggled into Russia to be used as beauty therapies in Russia, the Observer newspaper (UK) claims. Young women are being paid about US$200 for a foetus which can fetch $9,500 across the border. Earlier this month Russian border guards arrested a Ukrainian “mule” carrying 25 frozen foetuses in two vacuum flasks which he had purchased from a medical research centre. “We are talking about a huge, corrupt and dangerous trade in quack therapies,’ says Professor Vladimir Smirnov, of Moscow’s Institute of Experimental Cardiology.

Although abortion is restricted in the Ukraine after 12 weeks, corrupt doctors at state health institutes can arrange abortions later in a pregnancy as older foetuses are thought to have greater curative powers and are worth more. The woman might not even be aware of that the remains of her child have been sold to dealers. Beauty courses using blends of foetal cells are banned in the Ukraine and Russia but they are still widely available from salons which charge up to $19,000 for treatment to stop ageing or to cure Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s.

Ukrainians are not surprised by the news, says the Observer. “They used to say we were selling Ukraine,” said one local journalist. Now we are selling Ukrainians; moreover, in parts.”