Updated: January 23, 2012
This is a story about murder, international organ trafficking and children disappearing from Eastern European orphanages. There is a Barbados connection.
We’re featuring the story again because the ETN Travel News and other agencies are reporting today that children are still disappearing and being murdered for international organ trafficking. (ETN: Canada is putting a stop to Cannibalism Tourism. Canadian Star: Transplant tourism a form of cannibalism)
The Barbados connection happened under then Prime Minister Owen Arthur when his government hooked up with the Institute For Regenerative Medicine and Arthur announced that our country would be the “stem cell center of the world”. When the BBC broke the story in 2006, Barbados Free Press said…
“The Government Of Barbados under Prime Minister Owen Arthur has allowed Barbados to become a world destination for trafficking in body parts – an industry that is known to involve organized crime, paying poor Ukrainian women to become pregnant and then aborting… and where there is now evidence of kidnapping and murder of newly born live, healthy babies.”
… from the BFP story: BREAKING – BBC Has Video: Healthy Ukrainian Newborns Murdered For Body Parts – Destination Barbados Clinic
The Institute For Regenerative Medicine left Barbados after the story broke, and Owen Arthur and his government were just happy to let the whole thing drop. The story is still relevant though because our current Freundel Stuart government and Health Minister Inniss are heavily involved in partnering with private health interests and clinics in Barbados.
So far, Barbados has no laws, rules or policies concerning the obtaining and supply of any body parts for use in our country. Without those standards, Barbados is at risk of again being seen as a destination for body parts taken from murdered children.
How about it, Minister of Health Inniss? Did we learn anything from our little partnership with the Institute For Regenerative Medicine… or are we going to let it happen again?
BFP’s Original Story first published December 18, 2006…
BLP Should Declare & Return Any Campaign Donations From Institute For Regenerative Medicine – To Avoid The Appearance Of Conflict Of Interest
The Institute For Regenerative Medicine may, or may not, have given campaign donations to the ruling Barbados Labour Party. Without the necessary campaign finance laws in place, Barbados citizens have no idea one way or the other. Bajan citizens need to know that there are no conflicts of interest that might impact a government investigation of the serious allegations of kidnapping and murder being raised by Swiss Members of Parliament and others.
Because of the serious nature of the alleged crimes – murder – the Prime Minister should clear the air so that citizens can have faith in the investigation that most certainly needs to be done.
So how about it, Mr. Prime Minister… did the BLP or any of its candidates receive any funding from IRM or anyone connected with IRM? What are the details and when will the monies be returned?
Barbados Government, Police, Ministry Of Health Should Be Launching An Investigation
Now that the IRM clinic is embroiled in what appear to be credible accusations that its stem cell supply chain involves kidnapping and murdering healthy newborn infants in Ukraine, various arms of the Barbados government should be ramping up for an investigation.
This investigation should include senior officials from the Ministry of Health and law enforcement – and involvement with overseas law enforcement agencies and governments is a given.
This Is About Murder
Barbados Law Enforcement and Health Officials should have already executed search warrants on the Institute For Regenerative Medicine – and seized stem cell samples for DNA match with the parents of the murdered children.
That is pretty basic… but it is way too late now.
The Ministry of Health should have already been issuing permits for the fetal body parts or stem cells taken from fetal body parts that IRM has been importing into Barbados for years. While the origins of these human body parts may have been falsified by IRM, they and the paperwork are still evidence that should be seized and reviewed immediately.
Again – issuing import permits is pretty basic oversight when Barbados is licensing offshore clinics that use human body parts – whether liquified or not.
Don’t forget – in most cases, the reason these businesses are coming to Barbados is because medical authorities in their home countries refuse to license them.
Story Links
BFP – Barbados Clinic Baby Murder Scandal
The Nation Newspaper Tackles Barbados Clinic – Baby Murder Story
Abortions Provider George Griffith Is Barbados Labour Party Candidate For St. Philip North
Barbados Free Press 
BFP, what you are appealing to the BLP’s moral sense to reveal whether they have received contributions. I don’t know where the integrity legislation fits in here, but situations like this is probably why we have none. They are under no obligation to tell us, the taxpayers, anything.
And we don’t have the balls to vote them out.
No wonder the pimp Owen Arthur can declare in Oistins at the recent BLP political meeting that regardless of when he calls elections – the result will the same, 4 – 0 to the BLP !!!!!
Note, Lady Jerome was on the same political platform that night.
Could it be that this Villa Nova ( Vita Nova?) project is to provide campaign funds for the BLP in the upcoming election?
Is this why this government has turned a blind eye to its operations?
Barbadians, let us remember St. Lucians saw the signs of such corruption on the wall and voted Anthony out the way.
Anthony also promised ‘free plots of land’ to every St. Lucian if his party was returned office on December 11 2006.
Could you believe after 9 years in office doing nothing for the people, Anthony, came with such an empty promise?
What about the pimp Owen Arthur $ 34 million ‘promise’ to fix all the roads in St. Philip!!!
After 12 years of BLP rule and St. Philip residents complaining about the state of their roads every year !!!
Ah wonder if the Villa Nova secret providing the $34 million?
Come on the Negrocratic pimp, Owen Arthur – Bajan want answers and FAST !!!!!
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Sorry if I am sceptical about the BFP’s motive in all this. The statement that the IRM “may OR may NOT have given” campaign donations to the BLP is much too ambigious to be useful. If the BFP has evidence of collusion or association between the two organisations it should just present it. If there is no hard evidence , just wild speculation, I can only deplore the damage done to Barbados’ good name by this blog just out of a visceral dislike of the governing party! Also I wish to remind readers that according to the BBC report “The stem cell swindle” the biological material orginating in the Ukraine and sent to the IRM in Barbados came via the United Kingdom where it was TESTED! I think given their technical capacity and location (i.e in Europe) the British authorities are better suited to carrry out investigations into this sordid affair. So what are the UK authorities doing? I however agree that Barbados should take action from their end.
Citizen First: I am with you on this. The drive to tie this incident around the necks of the governing party has led to the appearance of glee that this occurred.
Adrian…If “the governing party ” is not responsible for licensing and monitoring the operation of a controversial Medical treatment facility in Barbados who is?
Stem Cell treatment is still not mainstream in the rest of the world?
Hant: what is the cause for concern here? That persons are comming to Barbados for the fountain of youth cocktail? or that healthy babies were killed in the Ukraine? I think the concern is with the latter, and how one can blame the GoB for this is kind of silly to me.
BFP is correct that this “medical facility” is here in Barbados because it is not allowed in Britain.
There are all kinds of very good technical and safety-related reasons why the transfer and implanting of human tissue is a highly regulated affair in the civilized world. There is the potential for disease first and foremost.
Does the government of Barbados regulate the importing of human tissue into our country? What are the Barbados regulations for the use and disposal of human tissue?
BFP like all of us knows how things work on this island and they are perfectly within reason to ask whether campaign donations have been received. Given that the BLP has had 12 years to institute any laws about integrity and transparency with campaign donations or conflicts of interest we all know that it is not going to happen on Owen’s time.
Citizen First’s idea is that we should all be quite about this and let Mother Britain tell us what to do.
It is about MURDER for God’s Sake! The bodies may have come here and the people running the clinic are at least sources of evidence.
Bajan citizens have a right to expect that medical practices on this island will be regulated by the government in a professional manner.
It is not BFP that is the problem for daring to mention that we just might have had murder victims shipped to Barbados. The entire world knows about this through the BBC!
So what is the government going to do about this? They ARE the ones who put us into bed with these russian mobsters.
I saw a comment on one of the BBC articles that Barbados was the “Frankenstein Laboratory Of The Caribbean” !!!!
The world knows all about this already. Citizens should demand that the government at least give the appearance of doing something about “this mess”.
About the world knowing that Barbados is the end destination for these murdered babies?
The BBC broadcast it around the world but I saw it at the Drudge Report website (www.drudgereport.com) for two days. Matt Drudge gets 9 million hits per day.
The genie is well out of the bottle.
Citizen First
December 18th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
Sorry if I am sceptical about the BFP’s motive in all this. The statement that the IRM “may OR may NOT have given” campaign donations to the BLP is much too ambigious to be useful. If the BFP has evidence of collusion or association between the two organisations it should just present it. If there is no hard evidence , just wild speculation, I can only deplore the damage done to Barbados’ good name by this blog just out of a visceral dislike of the governing party!
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I agree wholeheartedly.
re: comment by Akabozzik.
I certainly do NOT suggest that we should be quiet about this or that we should wait for Mother Britain to tell us what to do. What I do wish is for is fairness and accuracy in our discussion. The reference to the UK’s involvement is to raise questions about the difficulty in getting the kind of proof which would allow the authorities to close down such operations in accordance with the law. Also I deplore the suggestion that the Government is somehow actively involved in this sordid affair without any proof other than the existence of IRM in Barbados. At this point with what I have been given by the BFP (which is only source of information on this matter that I have at my disposal), I can only accuse the local authorities of being a bit naive. Finally, while we are pointing fingers, I would have thought the local medical experts and scientists if they had any concerns about IRM and its claims should have raised them before and should be campaigning publicly, for the establishment of standards and protocols in keeping with the best ethical and scientific principles and institutional arrangements to police such.
Citizen First says…
“At this point with what I have been given by the BFP (which is only source of information on this matter that I have at my disposal), I can only accuse the local authorities of being a bit naive.”
Yes, CF, it looks like BFP is the only source you have on this so far.
You should think hard upon that, and ask why that is so.
Insofar as the local authorities being “a bit naive” – you may be correct and then you should be asking yourself if these “local authorities” should be in power.
We at BFP are asking for answers – and our questions are no different than the rest of the world is asking right now.
It is unfortunate that we live in a country where laws are not published for all to see. Then we would know exactly what the law requires for such a clinic to be established and human tissue to be imported into the country.
I suspect – and we have a friendly lawyer looking into this right now – that Barbados has no laws whatsoever respecting the importation, use or disposal of human tissue.
Again, one must ask one’s self – is this the best for Bajans and Barbados?
Let’s face it, these type of operations are here just because they can do what they want without oversight or having to answer to professional medical bodies.
What does that say about our country to the rest of the world?
Citizen First, I may agree with you that the gov’t is not actively involved. But seemingly ignoring the rising tide is detrimental. If you close your eyes, it does not mean that the issue has disappeared; it is just getting bigger.
Perhaps it is just a case of “If we ignore it, it will go away”
And folks, for those who seek to deflect our fairly straightforward enquiries to the government by questioning our motives – that’s the oldest trick in the book.
Simple question – How much money did this clinic or associated persons give to the BLP?
Was it none? OK, great. Now we know that there is less likelihood of a conflict of interest with the government.
Was it some amount that can be returned? Ok… that can go a long way to reducing perceived conflict of interest with the government.
Pretty simple questions that citizens are asking and entirely normal in other jurisdictions considering the circumstances.
It is just that the government has been able to do what they want without questions from the media for so long that they and their supporters are a little shocked that someone would dare say aloud what all are thinking.
We see that Harvard Law School GVP has picked up the story from the Barbados side.
Like somebody said on the comments, this genie is well out of the bottle long before BFP picked up on it.
BFP
December 18th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Citizen First says…
Insofar as the local authorities being “a bit naive” – you may be correct and then you should be asking yourself if these “local authorities” should be in power.
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This may very well be the reason for your approach to this story, that risk injury to the Barbadian economy, to get your end result.
Would it matter to you at this time that the party that you would remove for being naive on this issue would be replace by one that has been naive on other issues?
I am NOT ignoring this issue. BUT it will go away if we treat it as a BLP (or DLP)related issue (remember the HARP programme). Such issues can only be addressed by the combined efforts of the medical, legal and civil administration persons (the local authorities). I personally wouldn’t know the difference between a stem cell and another kind of cell. In these matters I am looking to the experts for leadership. Yes the politicians ultimately have to pass the legislation and approve the funds in parliament but the form and content of that initiative has to come from the experts and yes, BFP, pressure from us, the citizenry. Now if someone was to show me that proposals were made to regulate such activities as the IRM and the poilitical directorate either rejected these outright or just filed them away to be conveniently forgotten then I would be the first to demand that those politicians be held accountable.
Not to excuse the absense of the regulatory framework in Barbados, I think we must not be so hard on ourselves. The BBC report mentioned the existence of similar operations in South Africa (a medically advanced society). I also remember the sad details of Corretta Scott Kiing’s death in a clinic in Mexico of similar dubious quality. There are desperate and ignorant people who are easy prey to the snake oil purveyors of miracles. Now that these charlatans have reached our shores we must get to work.
Hi Adrian
It’s not just about the current leadership – although the captain of any ship is, in the end, responsible for the conduct of the crew and the safety of the passengers and vessel.
The current government runs things with an iron hand. They have their noses into everything so much so that the civil services are constantly thinking about the politics of situations rather than addressing the realities of their duties.
Much of this can be laid upon the BLP because, after all, they have had a free hand to do as they see fit for the past 12 years.
We are a country that lacks laws. As citizens, we don’t even know what laws we lack.
Here we are debating as to whether there are laws respecting the establishment and supervision of medical facilities in Barbados and not a one of us can answer the question and pull up a source.
The best that our lawyer friend has been able to come up with so far is that “it looks like” Barbados has no laws respecting the importation, use and disposal of human tissue for medical purposes.
If that is the case, then the government’s allowing the establishment of the stem cell clinic must be seen as pretty well giving them a blank cheque to do as they see fit without supervision or rules.
And now that decision by the BLP government has resulted in a worldwide hit upon our country’s reputation. There may even be an impact upon our tourist industry as people come to see us as a third-world backwater insofar as medical practice is concerned.
We just don’t know how this whole thing will play out, but the world is watching Barbados right now, and they aren’t thinking about cricket.
citizen first said: “Now that these charlatans have reached our shores we must get to work.”
Please, Citizen First, don’t play us for fools.
These things were all known years ago when the government embraced these people and allowed them to set up without first establishing a “regulatory framework” as you call it.
That was Owen Arthur’s decision at the time. It wasn’t an accident.
Now, the world is questioning Barbados’ role in allowing this to exist in our country without laws and oversight.
That’s not an accident, CF. Once again, it is the entirely predictable result of a decision by the Government.
Nice try!
Keep up the good work BFP ! Through your valiant attempts to put the noose on this BLP administation on this issue (Villa Nova Clinic) and many other controversial ones, it is becoming all too clear that some naysayers are becoming uneasy !!!!
It has been a long time since the BLP has been called to account to anyone for anything – now the investigative eyes of the world press are on us!!!
It is true that CWC is not on their minds!!!
But what else do/did we expect from the pimp Owen Arthur.
Remember he was the one who fired from the Cabinet of Barbados Sir Richard Cheltenham, George Payne, Liz Thompson ….. and not a word to the Barbadian public on the reason why ? Mind you, these persons are/were paid from the public purse.
Winston Cox fired from the Central Bank of Barbados and not an explanation from Arthur as to why ?
So the PM has a long history of not accounting for anything or to anyone!!!
I wish you all the best BFP on this one!!!
“Years ago” is two years. I don’t know what the Government was told when IRM was initially set up but I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt that they thought this clinic was a bonofide operation unless shown otherwise. From the little that I have read about stem cell technology, it is a controversial activity with intense public debate about it. Some countries are proceeding with research and use, others are severely proscribing it. So we can accuse the Government of being too gung ho/naive in allowing IRM here but when reports were carried in the local press (the Nation Newspaper) I don’t recall any red flags going up from the medical profession. In fact there was a bit of a triumphant tone in the paper’s report. If not now for the expose about the source and methods of the getting the stem cells, IRM would be quietly practising its quackery without comment.
Look, let me restate my position on the issue. There is a need to establish a regulatory framework for such activities. It should have been in place before but unfortunately it wasn’t. Such framework can only be established by the efforts of experts in the field. I may hold the Government accountable for not previously having acted on this matter BUT I will not subscribe to BFP’s innuendo that the BLP or any other Barbadian entity deliberately looked the other way because of some financial inducement UNTIL that is explicity shown to have been so. Barbados is NOT the only country involved. Let me repeat, the biological material come via the UK where tests are carried out.
How is Barbados going to be affected by this story?
I hope that the Government is busy creating a policy to do damage control.
The Government has to act swiftly and decisively to solve this problem.It calls for a statement from the Prime Minister.
I am a DLP supporter but I don’t think the Government knew that “alledgely” murdered new born babies would be used by this IRM Clinic.
A Tourist destination must avoid this kind of bad publicity.
Interesting debate between those who believe that transparency and accountability in government should be a given – and those who are doing everythng in their power to deflect the very simple questions that we all have.
This thought by Citizen First that he/she will wait for “proof” that money was given by the stem cell clinic to the Barbados Labour Party is laughable.
After 12 years of BLP government, there is no law requiring transparency for political donations and that is – as BFP say – “no accident”.
I agree with BFP that IF money was given, a conflict of interest is now created, so the money should be given back to resolve that conflict of interest.
As we say here on the west, “silence say all”
First Citizen- I’m with you 100% on this. Very fair.
BFP- We don’t want to you to get in trouble on this with unsubstantiated accusations. You are too precious to us.
Avoiding further damage to the reputation of Barbados through prompt remedial action should be our priority. I feel the same fiasco could have happened if DLP were in power. Our nation is still inexperienced.
To ask a question about campaign financing is not to allege that anything improper happened.
Corporations provide campaign donations to political parties.
Our concern is that Barbados has no transparency regarding political donations, and we want to know if the government who is in charge of licensing the clinic and now investigating the mess has a perceived conflict of interest created by a donation.
Got that folks?
This is very basic in most democracies where accountability in government is legislated.
So we again ask the question of the BLP and the Government…
Did the stem cell clinic or anyone associated with it make any campaign donations to the BLP?
If so, will the BLP now return the money?
If not… the government should say so – to ensure that justice appears to be done.
Like we said… basic stuff unless you’re talking Barbados.
BFP says:
December 18th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Hi Adrian
It’s not just about the CURRENT leadership – although the captain of any ship is, in the end, responsible for the conduct of the crew and the safety of the passengers and vessel.
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BFP
December 18th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
The CURRENT government runs things with an iron hand. They have their noses into everything so much so that the civil services are constantly thinking about the politics of situations rather than addressing the realities of their duties.
Much of this can be laid upon the BLP because, after all, they have had a free hand to do as they see fit for the past 12 years.
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Either it is or it isn’t about the CURRENT LEADERSHIP, THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT. To my mind and by your clear example here it is about the current leadership. You have clearly insinuated that you mean this CURRENT government by the very use of the word CURRENT, and further reference to the last 12 years. The fact that similar incidents may have occurred under previous administrations, elected by the same first past the post election system and enable by the same parliamentary makeup that gives all the decision making power to the election winner no matter how small the margin of victory is, is still in the place, this latest incident is to be viewed as a watershed event in terms of it’s potential fallout for the country. Uh mean how partisan can you get?
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BFP
December 18th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
We are a country that lacks laws. As citizens, we don’t even know what laws we lack.
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If this is the reason why we are experiencing these type of events how do you determine that a simple change in the power players in the halls of parliament will make the difference? Do you really believe in what you are advocating or you do but just shallow enough think that playing musical chairs in parliament will do the trick??
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BFP
December 18th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Here we are debating as to whether there are laws respecting the establishment and
supervision of medical facilities in Barbados and not a one of us can answer the question and pull up a source.
The best that our lawyer friend has been able to come up with so far is that “it looks like” Barbados has no laws respecting the importation, use and disposal of human tissue for medical purposes.
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Ok fair enouhg. Were they laws against the activities of Eddie D’andrate and Trade confermers? no are they laws now? yes, where they laws against the activities at the old BCCI bank? are they laws now? yes, were they laws against music piracy? back in the 80’s and early nineties” are they such laws now? Common law marriage, sexual harrassment in the workplace all laws that came in being in an iformed and pragmatic way. Would it have been the right thing to do at the time of the opening of this clinic, to have guidelines in place? of course, would i hold the unavailability of such legislation against a particular political party in light of similiar and past naive approach to regulating new endevours? No I condemn our system of government. I don’t subscribe to drive by legislation and while it can be argued after the fact that such legislation would have been a possible guiding light and or hindrance to what may have unfolded with this clinic I am sufficiently convince that that majority opinion here is so as a result pure political partisanship, and that it matters not that you are stretching hoping for a link. Whats in if for you? Whats in it for you Adrian Loverage? are you the new Peter Morgan? not that it would be a bad thing, as i happen to think that more use should be made of your abilities, to the country’s benefit. 😀
I don’t think laws and regulation alone would have prevented the situation which exists, viz the apparent link between Barbados and the alleged murder of babies in the Ukraine.
I must really watch that BBC documentary before I try to add to this debate and there is no excuse as Prof Fraser’s article tells me how.
I am sticking my neck out here so go easy on me.
I think it has more to do with principled, logical thinking which I admit can go wrong too. I may be laughed at for saying this but I feel that the whole idea of Barbados being involved in anything as new fangled as stem cell research should have raised alarm bells long ago for the persons permitting it to happen here.
I am not a doctor but I do have scientific training and if I had to make a decision on letting it happen here or not I think the biggest cost in my mind would be how would Barbados acquire the technical resource which would allow something as new as this to be regulated and explained to me in terms I could understand..
I don’t think I would even get to the part about enacting new laws and regulations. I would have agonised when I got to the part about having the technical expertise to make the laws and regulations work.
…. and its about here I would have stopped because I know there are other major health issues which require the resources I would have to commit to get the peace of mind to let stem cell research go on here.
So I think I would have said to whoever represents Vita Nova, thanks for thinking of Barbados but we just can’t afford you at the moment, … something like what I would have said to Mr. Kerrins and his waterpark, and perhaps Guyana wishes it could have said to Jim Jones.
We just can’t afford you at the moment. Why don’t you try a country with the resources and know how to regulate what you are doing, … like say the USA, or Germany … or even Japan?
You must let us know how you get through and we wish you well.
I have to admit I have not even tried to access the BBC because I am not sure I even want to see it. These sort of things make me squeamish.
Adrian,
Trade Confirmers was highway robbery, and there are laws which exist from the year dot to deal with that. I think if the whole story is told that there was a facilitation, sometimes referred to as a blind eye, ditto copyright violation. So the law didn’t much matter.
Perhaps sexual harassment in the work place is “new” because of numbers of women in the workforce now who were not allowed to be there in the past, and common law marriage because of a more enlightened thinking to protect all the parties involved.
But highway robbery and copyright violation, just needed a blind eye.
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The alarm bells should have gone off from the moment people start talking to our government about importing body parts for transplant. BFP is right to ask if it will happen again at these new clinics. We can hardly keep the roads clear and repaired and water flowing out of the taps. Bare foolishness for Barbados to become involved in high tech medicine and allow outside unknown companies to do what they want on our soil.
yawn. dishonest christians. Lying for baby jesus
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