The horns are used in traditional medicine in countries such as China and Vietnam.
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The price of rhino horn - used in traditional medicine in Asian countries - has soared.
To either sell for meat or to sell body parts into the traditional medicine trade.
Putting traditional medicine on a scientific footing is vital to its continued success in the West.
Poachers hunt them for their horns, which are in great demand for use in Far-Eastern traditional medicine.
Behind this renewed interest in traditional medicine is a palpable sense of pride in reviving one's heritage.
Tiger parts are regularly smuggled out of India and sent to China where they're used for traditional medicine.
Traditional medicine and its ethical implications is one of the most important and complex issues of bioethics nowadays.
In traditional medicine, as in every kind of medicine, health is at stake.
Take Ioannis Solos, a young practitioner of traditional medicine from the Greek town of Agrinion who lives in Beijing.
Both the Indian and Thai governments are currently drafting biodiversity laws to regulate access to their biological resources and protect traditional medicine.
In 2000 the Chinese government finally opened the traditional medicine sector to foreign investment, and Chi-Med was one of the first in.
In Asia, turtles play a big part in traditional medicine as well.
The country is also pressing traditional medicine into the service of biotechnology.
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Rosana Tositrakul, founder of Traditional Medicine for Self-Reliance, a Bangkok-based non-governmental organization, sees a clear future in developing ancient remedies for modern times.
Digestive bile is forcibly extracted from the gall bladders of bears, to be sold on the black market for use in traditional medicine.
To do that means getting the country's drug companies to take part in what is, for them, the non-traditional activity of traditional medicine.
The trees are indigenous to Southeast Asia and their leaves have been used as a traditional medicine in Thailand and Asian countries for centuries.
Kava and passionflower have long been used in traditional medicine for their calming properties, and the herbs are now sold in stores as capsules or liquid extracts.
Despite a long-standing ban on the international trade, ivory from elephants is often smuggled to Asia for use in ornaments, while rhino horns are used in traditional medicine.
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Experts say the increase in poaching is fueled by demand in East Asia for rhino horns, which are believed in traditional medicine to treat ailments such as arthritis and hangovers.
In India and elsewhere, consumers once resigned to choking down bits of bark or fistfuls of leaves can now take traditional medicine in more palatable forms - pills, potions and powders.
The numbers have soared in recent years to meet the demand for their horns in Asian traditional medicine, especially in China and Vietnam, where they are thought to have powerful healing properties.
The killing of rhinos has soared in recent years to meet the demand for their horns in Asian traditional medicine, especially in China and Vietnam, where they are thought to have powerful healing properties.
Traditional medicine is today most often characterised by a wide variety of diverging practices which lack a solid legal and medical framework that could prevent deviations and abuse along with their potentially dangerous consequences for patients.
Sangomas believe that a persistent physical ailment is often a manifestation of a spiritual upset and they first need to address that, then they are guided by the ancestors on what the physical sickness is and how best to treat it, using traditional medicine.
In accordance with the work programme of the IBC for 2012-2013, two main topics will be discussed during these meetings: the issue of traditional medicine and its ethical implications and the principle of non-discrimination and non-stigmatization, set forth in article 11 of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005).
UNESCO: All Events | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
But Western medicine doctors in China often look down on colleagues who practice traditional Chinese medicine, scoffing that it lacks scientific grounding, even if its precepts have been accepted by billions of people for thousands of years.
Indonesia's traditional herbal medicine, jamu, for instance, costs a tenth of the price of Western drugs.
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