Google – AFP, 16 Sep 2013
Illustration:
a group of nurses walks along a corridor at a hospital in
Beijing on July 29,
2013 (AFP/File, Wang Zhao)
|
BEIJING — A
Chinese hospital's request for blood from healthy female virgins for use in
medical research has been condemned as insulting to women, state-run media
reported Monday.
The Peking
University Cancer Hospital said it needed the blood of 100 female virgins aged
from 18 to 24 years old for studies on the human papilloma virus (HPV), which
is usually transmitted through sexual contact, the China Daily reported.
Some
internet users condemned the request as promoting virginity worship and
demeaning to women.
"Male
virgins are not needed, just females, how is this science?" wrote one user
of Sina Weibo, a social media service similar to Twitter and a lively forum for
popular opinion.
The
hospital defended the call for donors, saying that virgins' blood was less
likely to be infected with HPV.
"It's
in line with international practice to collect female virgins' blood samples,
which serve as negative control substances in HPV research, given that the risk
of contracting HPV is low among women who have never had sex," the China
Daily quoted spokeswoman Guan Jiuping as saying.
Hospital
officials would take the donors' word for their sexual status, she added.
Some
internet users defended the hospital, with one saying on Sina Weibo:
"People who curse are basically those who haven't understood the whole
story. Learn some science and rationality, rather than criticising
others."
Female
virginity was traditionally seen as a prerequisite for marriage in China, and
today many Chinese men still prefer their wives to be virgins.
The
continued importance attributed to virginity, combined with relaxed sexual
mores in recent decades, has led to growth in the market for artificial hymens
and restorative surgery which allows women to appear to be virgins.
But some
commentators in China have said the pressure placed on women to remain virgins
is demeaning and evidence of a double standard.
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