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Scientist Confirms Nuclear HK Baby Tests
A scientist who led Cold War experiments on the effects of nuclear fallout has confirmed that corpses of Hong Kong babies were used, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.
Lawrence Kulp, a project leader of "Project Sunshine", was quoted as saying that British scientists carried out tests on the corpses of babies, children and adults in Hong Kong, then a British colony.
US scientists turned to Taiwan in their search for corpses, Kulp was quoted as saying, though the story did not specify whether any bodies were obtained there.
British newspapers reported last week that around 6,000 stillborn babies and dead infants had been sent to the United States and Britain from hospitals in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and South America over a 15-year period without the permission of parents.
Project Sunshine began in 1955 when University of Chicago doctor Willard Libby -- who was later awarded a Nobel prize for his research into carbon dating -- appealed for bodies, preferably stillborn or newly-born babies, to test the impact of atomic fallout, the reports said.
Kulp later led the project, the Post reported.
Hong Kong was a British colony for more than 150 years before returning Chinese mainland in mid-1997.
Kulp was quoted as saying that Project Sunshine had been organised on a "doctor to doctor" basis and that it had drawn the participation of British scientists. It was not a government project, he said.
Hong Kong health officials said last week they would not investigate the reports unless specific evidence came to light that local babies had been used in the tests.
Health officials were not available for further comment on Sunday.
Australian officials on Thursday confirmed that cremated bones from some Australian babies, children and adults had been shipped to the United States and Britain to test for fallout from nuclear tests.
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