Many Australian news sites today, including the Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald and the Age reported that a new experiment could potentially stop baldness.

Researchers have successfully grafted skin with new hair folicles onto lab mice, by using tissue from harvested human infant foreskins.

Is this a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul? On an ethical level, it would hard to justify making a cosmetic alteration to a non-consenting infant to enable another cosmetic alteration to an adult. Especially when you consider that to the original owner, the foreskin has many functional qualities which would be sacrificed for a purely cosmetic alteration to someone else. Fine if this truly was medical waste, but it is commonly accepted that there is almost never a medical reason to circumcise an infant.

I find it odd that this ethical and moral minefield didn’t rate a mention from the traditional Australian media.

This would not be the first time that infant foreskins have been used for the vanity of adults. An Australian distributor for face cream SkinMedica has found out that many Australians are not going to accept the use of harvested human foreskins in its products, with blogs drawing attention to the issue and complaints submitted to the company’s website. Oprah Winfrey has also been met with protests over her endorsement of the face creams.

Many Australian men already think that those who are balding should just accept it, and that those who resort to medical procedures to cure their baldness should be called ‘dickheads’. (With Shane Warne receiving the lion’s share of this sentiment). Perhaps this sentiment was a little harsh, but I think that for anyone who puts infant foreskins on their heads, the label is justified.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net