TATYANA ZAKHAROVA shook her head as she ran her finger down the page and read out the products on offer.

“Foetus spleen cells, fragments of foetus spine, foetus liver cells,” the human rights activist from Kharkov said.

“How can this be allowed?” The list was taken from a website, www.celltransplantation.iatp.org.ua/specialist.htm, naming materials produced by the Institute for Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in Kharkov.

The institute, one of the biggest and most famous in its field, says that the materials are produced legally using early aborted foetuses which are otherwise disposed of as biowaste.

But its highly specialised and controversial research is now under scrutiny after renewed allegations that live babies — or their dead bodies — have disappeared from maternity hospitals in Kharkov.

Neither Valentin Grishenko, the head of the institute, or any other representatives was available for comment.

However, Juliya Kopeika, who used to work there and is now doing research in Britain, told The Times that Ukrainian scientists in the field had long benefited from a more relaxed approach to ethical issues. “Often you wouldn’t even ask the parents if you could use the material,” Dr Kopeika, who used to work at a maternity hospital in Kharkov, said. “That’s why they’ve had much more access in Ukraine than here in Britain.”

She said most of the research was done using stem cells from foetuses aborted before their sixth week. But she added that there were probably potential medical uses for material from foetuses aborted later. “I’m sure everything can be useful if that is what you want. But late materials are much more controversial — they are rare things,” she said.

But there are loopholes.

Under Ukrainian law, babies born before 27 weeks or weighing under 1 kg (21b 3oz) are automatically considered abortions, rather than births. The babies are therefore not officially registered, and are sometimes taken away from their mothers and not returned, human rights activists say.

Responding to international pressure, Ukraine is now changing its definition of live birth to ensure that all babies born alive are registered.

Medical experts say foetuses and embryos have many practical uses within mainstream medicine and research, but babies have much fewer, and are more likely to end up in the most maverick and unethical enterprises.

The demand for, and use of, paediatric organ donors remains very small, in part due to the extreme technical difficulties such operations pose.

Tissue use is marginally more common, such as the transplantation of a heart valve from a recently deceased baby for use in cardiac surgery, but still rarely done.

However, in unregulated areas of the world, there may be demand for babies’ organs in scientific research, rather than clinical settings.

In the UK, after the Alder Hey affair, all such research comes under intense scrutiny. Any doctor who contravenes strict regulations faces severe sanction and the prospect of being struck off.

As a valuable source of stem cells, the focus of one of the most important and innovative areas of medicine, foetuses and embryos are used widely in research.

They are also used in the more dubious cosmetic industry in Eastern Europe, where “foetal stem cell therapy” — a supposed antiageing injection — is increasingly popular.

A private clinic in Mariupol, Ukraine, is under investigation over accusations that it gave injections and transplants of placenta and other foetus-related material to wealthy patients for cosmetic rejuvenation.

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