# Chicken...egg....foetus? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511 "2006-12-01T19:03:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zelie\_zelerton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/59ef9b/32.png) [@zelie\_zelerton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zelie_zelerton)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/1 "2006-12-01T19:03:35Z")
I was thinking the other day about my intolerance to egg and musing on the point at which an egg could be said to become chicken. I can eat chicken just fine. šŸ™‚ I know a lot of vegetarians who are ok with eating eggs and this raises the issue of when does an egg turn into meat? And then I got to wondering whether any culture eats any kind of animal foetus. AFAIK it really isnā€™t done, not that Iā€™ve heard of anyway. I guess Iā€™m thinking more of things like birds since it would be counterproductive to slaughter a sheep or cow just to get at the young animal. But logically somebody, somewhere has cracked open an egg before itā€™s due (or has just thought it was an eggy-type egg) and has had a partially-formed bird tumble out. So do people ever eat them? Recipes? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/2 "2006-12-01T19:09:44Z")
[QUOTE=zelie zelerton] And then I got to wondering whether any culture eats any kind of animal foetus. AFAIK it really isnā€™t done [/QUOTE] Oh, no? > **[Church of Euthanasia - Snuff It 3 - Eating Fetus in China](https://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/snuffit3/eatfetus.html)** > > Church of Euthanasia, Snuff It magazine > [@](#): > > The Electronic Telegraph, 13 April 1995, WORLD NEWS > > Chinese trade in human fetuses for consumption is uncovered > by Yojana Sharma in Hong Kong > and Graham Hutchings in Beijing > > ABORTED human fetuses intended for human consumption are being sold for as little as Ā„31 in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, according to reports in Hong Kong yesterday. > > The Eastern Express newspaper said journalists from its sister publication, Eastweek, had gone to Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong, to see if fetuses were being sold. Shenzhen hospitals carried out 7,000 terminations last year, including a number on Hong Kong women seeking cheap abortions. > > At the state-run Shenzhen Health Centre for Women and Children, a female doctor was asked for a fetus. The next day, she handed the reporter a ā€œfist-sized glass bottle stuffed with thumb-sized fetusesā€. > The doctor was quoted as saying: ā€œThere are 10 fetuses here, all aborted this morning. You can take them. We are a state hospital and donā€™t charge. Normally we doctors take them home to eatā€“all free. Since you donā€™t look well, you can take them.ā€ > > At private clinics, aborted fetuses could be obtained for between Ā„31 and Ā„31.75, the newspaper said. There was no evidence, however, that fetuses were being sold in large quantities to middlemen for sale in Hong Kong. > > Zou Qin, a doctor working at the Luo Hu Clinic in Shenzhen, said the fetuses were ā€œnutritiousā€ and claimed to have eaten 100 herself in the past six months. > > She said the ā€œbestā€ were first-born males from young women. ā€œWe donā€™t carry out abortions just to eat the fetuses,ā€ she said, but added that the fetuses would be ā€œwasted if not eatenā€. The newspaper said the fetuses were eaten as a soup, together with pork and ginger. > > A woman doctor, referred to only as Wang, from the Sin Hua Clinic, Shenzhen, was quoted as saying the fetuses were ā€œeven better than placentaeā€ in nutritional value. ā€œThey can make your skin smoother, your body stronger and are good for kidneys,ā€ she said. The story was not confirmed, to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/3 "2006-12-01T19:16:27Z")
Balut is a delicacy in the Phillipeans. Duck fetus. Hereā€™s a story, including pictures. I am NOT making this clickable, to protect the delicate sensibilities of our Dopers. Safe for work if pictures of bloody duck fetuses are safe at your work. No boobies or anything. http:/ /deependdining.blogspot.com/2005/09/balut-egg-of-darkness-pinoy-pinay.html ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/4 "2006-12-01T19:18:11Z")
_sigh_\* Philippines\*, of course. My brain is on a snow day today. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/5 "2006-12-01T19:35:54Z")
_sigh_\* Philippines\*, of course. My brain is on a snow day today. ---
**Author:** ![zelie\_zelerton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/59ef9b/32.png) [@zelie\_zelerton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zelie_zelerton)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/6 "2006-12-01T19:40:16Z")
Heh - itā€™s on a snow day twice. Thanks \*\*WhyNot \*\* for that interesting link. And I have to say I am stunned at the quality of writing. Iā€™ve bookmarked the blog now for further readings of the authorā€™s other entries. **Exapno Mapcase** thatā€™s uhā€¦interesting also. My thoughts hadnā€™t veered towards cannibalism! Though I do have my doubts as to the veracity of the claims made. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/7 "2006-12-01T19:53:09Z")
What the ā€“ ?! :smack: Nevermind. Iā€™m gonna go take a nap. ---
**Author:** ![Romola\_Des\_Loups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@Romola\_Des\_Loups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Romola_Des_Loups)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/8 "2006-12-01T20:05:10Z")
According to snopes, the ā€˜human foetusā€™ eating thing is probably a hoax. > **[Are Human Fetuses 'Taiwan's Hottest Dish'?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fetus-feast/)** > > Rumor: Photograph shows a man eating a dead baby served at an Asian restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/9 "2006-12-01T20:33:54Z")
Check out the bottom of that Snopes page. > [@](#): > > The rumor about the Chinese eating dead babies did not begin with this ā€œwork of art,ā€ however. In 1995, U.S. Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia raised a short-lived media ruckus by asserting heā€™d encountered credible reports of Chinese hospitalsā€™ selling human fetuses to be used as health food. Citing a 12 April 1995 article from Eastern Express, an English-language daily in Hong Kong, he demanded the Clinton administration and international human rights groups investigate these allegations. > > Nothing apparently came of this call to arms, leading us to believe those ā€œcredibleā€ reports turned out to be not so reliable after all. Just like this latest scare, in fact. IOW, the article I quoted is not the subject of the Snopes page but is mentioned in that afterthought. And no evidence is presented one way or another for its veracity. That Wolfā€™s ā€œcall to armsā€ didnā€™t bring hearings means nothing. He was a nonentity. Fetuses having curative powers seems to be an authentic Chinese folk myth, so an underground trade in them is not impossible, even if it is unlikely to make international news. ---
**Author:** ![Romola\_Des\_Loups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@Romola\_Des\_Loups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Romola_Des_Loups)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/10 "2006-12-01T22:08:42Z")
i agree that it doesnā€™t necessarily mean it never happens, but just means thereā€™s no evidence that it does. ---
**Author:** ![zelie\_zelerton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/59ef9b/32.png) [@zelie\_zelerton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zelie_zelerton)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/11 "2006-12-01T22:09:40Z")
So effectively we can file that under ā€˜wild rumourā€™ until you go get the goods for us. šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/12 "2006-12-01T23:07:03Z")
Just to be clear, the egg as we know and love it is unfertilized. So in that sense, it will never become a chicken, therefore no meat. If the egg is fertilized, then the fetus grows within the yoke, using it as nourishment. So the yoke or the eggwhite never directly becomes chicken meat. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/13 "2006-12-02T00:00:32Z")
[QUOTE=cmyk] So the yoke or the eggwhite never directly becomes chicken meat. [/QUOTE] Huh? Yes, it does, in the ā€œyou are what you eatā€ sense. Amino acids from the yolk and the albumin (white) are used to build muscle tissue in the embryo, just like the food YOU eat is used to repair or build your cells. The chicken embryo isnā€™t eating the yolk with its beak, but it does absorb it, similar to a mammal fetus/placental/maternal blood arrangement. [Citey McCitersen.](http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/344/yolk-as-the-fuel-for-embryo-metabolism) ---
**Author:** ![zelie\_zelerton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/59ef9b/32.png) [@zelie\_zelerton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zelie_zelerton)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2006, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/14 "2006-12-02T01:34:07Z")
I can see what you are both saying but in fairness **cmyk** did make a good point. I never eat eggs as they make me throw up so Iā€™d actually forgotten that the ones that people normally eat are unfertilised. Sigh. I canā€™t believe that I sat here and pondered on the strangeness of American names these days. Ok, Iā€™ve clicked on the link now and Iā€™ll leave Ms McCitersen to her own business. Thankyou. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2006, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-egg-foetus/382511/15 "2006-12-02T03:29:44Z")
[QUOTE=cmyk] Just to be clear, the egg as we know and love it is unfertilized. So in that sense, it will never become a chicken, therefore no meat. If the egg is fertilized, then the fetus grows within the yoke, using it as nourishment. So the yoke or the eggwhite never directly becomes chicken meat. [/QUOTE] Iā€™d like to ask people who think of commercial eggs as ā€œchicken embryosā€ if they also think that a woman has a miscarriage every month?