# eating fetuses -legal question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-fetuses-legal-question/86352>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 9, 2001, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-fetuses-legal-question/86352 "2001-10-09T16:21:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2001, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-fetuses-legal-question/86352/21 "2001-10-11T22:17:15Z")

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Everyone is to knock off the sniping in GQ. You know better than that. We have a forum specifically dedicated to that _so as to keep it out of GQ_!

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-fetuses-legal-question/86352/22 "2001-10-12T02:46:31Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Larry Mudd \*  
> \*\*DDG, you seem to be intent on turning this into an emotional argument. \*\*

I made a statement of fact: A placenta is not the same thing as a fetus.  
I made another statement of fact: Not all the placenta you buy in the U.S. is from human beings.

Please show me how either of those statements is “emotional”.  
Please show me how either of those statements is an “argument”.

> [@](#):
>
> \*\*My post did not suggest that placenta=fetus, I’m only pointing out that placenta is a common ingredient in traditional chinese medicine. \*\*

Right, and we were all talking about eating _fetuses_ and you brought up the subject of eating _placentas_. Fetuses and placentas are two completely different things. We were talking about X–you brought up a completely unrelated Y.

And again, these are just statements of facts.

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eating-fetuses-legal-question/86352/23 "2001-10-12T05:17:54Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \*  
> Please show me how either of those statements is “emotional”.  
> Please show me how either of those statements is an “argument”.

The OP begins:

> [@](#):
>
> According to this cite , the trade and consumption of human **placentae** and fetuses are traditional in China although in no way prevalent.

As no one has asserted in this thread that anyone actually _is_ eating fetuses, I did not find it necessary to restate: “Nobody eats fetuses.” I provided an anecdote that underlines where this misunderstanding comes from.

It seems to me that you replied as though I was offering support for the alarmist claims of the lunatic fringe that inscrutable orientals and misguided newagers were involved in a Satanic plot to get Americans to eat babies. My apologies if I misread the tone. Just trying to fill in details. I have a girfriend who eats 3 grams of dried placenta _every day_. That’s over a kilo per year. _Dry_. This is something that is very foreign to many people’s way of thinking, and it’s not hard to imagine prolifers trying to sell people the idea that it’s part of a big abortionist conspiracy. (Unfortunately.) But that’s why we have the Straight Dope.

[sub]cheers[/sub]

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