EXCLUSIVE: How the NHS 'sold' my PLACENTA to a luxury cosmetics firm instead of using it for medical research

The trade, which brought in £5,000 for Poole Hospital in Dorset last year, was condemned by politicians and health experts who said they were worried about the ethics involved.

And yesterday one woman, 39-year-old Donna Norman, told of her outrage when she realised that, following the arrival of her daughter Milly, the afterbirth was given to a biochemical company.

"I was under the impression that my placenta would only be used for vital medical research - not that it may help make some skin cream or shampoo," she said.

"I feel violated by what I have been through. It feels like they stole it because it was all done on false pretences. It's from my body.

"It's my DNA and I feel like they tricked it from me."

Mrs Norman, who works in publishing, said she was given a complicated medical consent form to sign after giving birth.

"They said my placenta would be used to help cure cancer research," she recalled.

"They didn't mention anything else. I was elated having just given birth and just signed it."

Mrs Norman, who also has three boys, feels betrayed by the hospital's actions.

"I would never have signed had I known the truth of what was happening," she said.

The hospital has harvested mothers' placentas and sold them to Sigma-Aldrich, a nearby biochemical company, for five years.

Sigma-Aldrich extracts the placentas' valuable proteins, which it sells on to cosmetic scientists.

Its customers include some of the world's biggest cosmetic companies, but it is impossible to tell exactly which products were developed with material from Poole mothers.

However, the Daily Mail has established that placentas from Poole were used in American research to find a new "anti-ageing" skin cream.

In 2005, biochemist Zoltan Kiss registered a U.S. patent for a chemical compound which he claims "restores and maintains the strength and thickness of ageing skin".

Professor Kiss says he used Sigma-Aldrich's human alkaline phosphatase in his work.

A Sigma-Aldrich salesman confirmed that the chemical was "of UK biological origin".

Once a week, a van makes the four-mile round trip from Sigma-Aldrich's high-security plant to the hospital to collect up to 70 frozen placentas, all of which have been delivered over the previous seven days.

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Poole Hospital: It made £5,000 selling placentas

For the company's scientists, the placenta is a rich raw material as it contains especially high levels of proteins and enzymes.

They are able to extract these and turn them into a total of seven chemical compounds which it offers for sale to laboratories around the world.

Among them are alkaline phosphatase and collagen - a substance widely used to stimulate skin growth and in some cosmetics to combat wrinkles. It is also used in shampoos and conditioners to strengthen hair.

Sigma-Aldrich advertises its human collagen at £1,215 for just half a gram and the placenta plant at Poole last year helped it post global pre-tax profits of £195million.

The practice, which has chilling echoes of the Alder Hey organ removal scandal, led Conservative MP Nadine Dorries to call for stronger regulation.

"It amazes me that a hospital is doing this - I do not think the products of pregnancy should be bought and sold."

The Royal College of Midwives claimed the practice is "deeply concerning in terms of ethics and morals".

And Colin Sibley, a foetal development expert, described the hospital's ethical behaviour as "not good enough".

Professor Sibley, of the University of Manchester, said: "The molecules could be used for cancer research, yes, but they could also be used in any sort of research.

"The ethics of this, as they are described to me, appear to be inadequate."

European legislation bans the sale inside Europe of any cosmetic containing human biological elements. But the law does not cover their use in cosmetic research.

Sigma-Aldrich strongly denies that its human placental byproducts are used in the manufacture of any cosmetic products.

But a spokesman conceded the chemicals may be used in the development and testing of cosmetics.

Malcolm Shaw, the firm's regulatory affairs manager, said: "We sell products purely for research and analytical use. However, they could be used in cosmetic research."

Yesterday Poole Hospital insisted that the £5,000 it received for its placentas was a "donation" rather than a payment, and the money was used to buy medical equipment.

A spokesman also pointed out that the mothers had signed a special consent form.

However, the form states only that the placentas will be used for "research into...cancer, cystic fibrosis, Parkinson's disease and HIV/AIDS".

No mention is made of their potential use in cosmetic research - nor are mothers told that both the hospital and Sigma-Aldrich will profit from the trade.

The hospital said it was unaware the placentas could be used for cosmetic reasons.

It added that Sigma-Aldrich had been asked to revise the information on the consent form "and be much more explicit about what the placentas are used for and mention the donation".