FORMER PATHOLOGIST Pang Teng-cheung had, until recently, been enjoying a peaceful retirement in Toronto, looking back on his long and distinguished career in colonial Hong Kong. But the tranquillity was shattered last month, when the 83-year-old doctor suddenly found himself implicated in a grim medical scandal dating back to the early 1960s.
Dr Pang, Hong Kong's first police surgeon, has been drawn into a controversy over the secret snatching of dead babies from the territory for use in gauging the effects of British nuclear tests during the Cold War period.
British records, which have only recently come to light, have linked Dr Pang - known locally as 'the father of forensic pathology' - to the supply of bones from Hong Kong babies for the experiments.
The records also separately state that femurs from 31 Hong Kong babies were handed over to British scientists in 1961 and used in the experiments.
Concerns raised as a result of the controversy led the SAR Government to launch an inquiry. The British documents showed the involvement of the colonial administration and prompted worries about the current handling of the bodies of infants in Hong Kong.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Morning Post, Dr Pang, who retired in 1973, denied he was involved and said if the practice did occur, it was 'shameful'. Speaking for the first time about the allegations, he said: 'We should always respect dead bodies. Even though the children were dead, we did not throw away their bodies like rubbish.'
The scandal has threatened to sully the fine reputation the doctor established during a career in Hong Kong which lasted 27 years. He was often in the spotlight as the territory's police surgeon.
