I posted the news yesterday that Russian villagers had discovered preserved fetuses in a forest and I didn’t publish my exact opinions on the circumstances as they required some thought. This is my follow up.
We attempted to contact the Russian authorities in relation to the story, only to be given a canned response that was released to other reporters. This response included the facts that the dumped fetuses were most likely the result of lazy waste management companies who were hired to dispose of the biological contents. The statements released also asserted that the fetuses were from humans and ranged from 12 to 16 weeks – but how long have the fetuses been there? Weeks, months, years?
Something doesn’t sound right.
Principally, the fetuses were allegedly in jars and preserved in formaldehyde. According to the various medical institutions I have contacted, this is something that is never done to aborted fetuses and a few clarifications were given that this has certainly not been done in recent years either.
Keeping fetuses in containers of formaldehyde does not seem like a consequence of abortion.
Is it more likely that this storage was for future research? Would I be silly to suggest a mad scientist living in the mountains?
Or more likely – a controversial experiment carried out for stem cell research? If that is the case, then are the surnames accompanying the specimens the product of future genetic tracking?
