What's in your anti-aging creme?

If you're European, it's quite possible your beauty products consist partly of the skin of executed Chinese convicts (in China, of course, convict doesn't always mean "murderer"; many are simply political dissidents).

A Chinese cosmetics company has been using skin taken from the bodies of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, a London newspaper reported.

An agent for the company informed customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they had been shot.

The agent said some of the company's products have been exported to Britain, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts was "traditional" and nothing to "make
such a big fuss about," the Guardian reported.

Perhaps this explains our huge trade deficit with China.

In the past, human rights groups have charged that China was using organs harvested from executed prisoners for medical transplants both domestically and internationally. China executed about 3,400 prisoners last year, according to Amnesty International.