Chinese Medicine Practitioners Should Voluntarily Reject the Use of Pangolins as Medicinal Material
Although the state upgraded the pangolin in 2020 from a second-class to a first-class protected animal and removed it from the pharmacopoeia and from textbooks of Chinese material medica starting that year, there are still quite a few people eating pangolins to fight cancer. Even after the COVID-19 outbreak, when the state repeatedly ordered a ban on eating wild animals, people still from time to time tell me that they have got hold of a pangolin and ask me how best to eat it to fight cancer. I refuse to answer such inquiries, and I have deleted the people concerned from my WeChat. If I knew the identities of these online inquirers, I would report them without mercy and have them brought to justice.
It must be frankly admitted that the pangolin has a long history of use as medicine, but this is a backward aspect of Chinese medicine that should be phased out. Many laypeople believe the pangolin has anticancer effects; in fact, it has no anticancer effect at all. Worse, the pangolin can readily transmit diseases to humans. Most of humanity's infectious diseases crossed over from mammals; the pangolin is a wild mammal, and hunting and eating it carries a risk of disease transmission.
Many people ask me why I introduce so many Chinese herbs but never the pangolin. This has to do with my own environmental convictions. I believe it is deeply unethical for people in Chinese medicine to go on using endangered species as medicinal materials. Anyone who continues to recommend and sell endangered species such as the pangolin to patients is acting shamefully. The variety and quantity of Chinese medicinal materials that can be used to treat illness are enormous, and they are cheaper than the pangolin, work better than the pangolin, and are less harmful than the pangolin. So why should we selfishly use endangered species like the pangolin, destroy biodiversity, and toll the death knell for humanity as a whole?
The high incidence of cancer is closely tied to the destruction of the human living environment. Cancer patients have already suffered greatly from this; have they not yet realized that we have an obligation and a responsibility to stop this situation from worsening? Eating pangolins to fight cancer is a selfish and ignorant act; the pangolin is not an anticancer drug. Patients should voluntarily resist the practice of Chinese medicine practitioners prescribing pangolin. In Chinese medical prescriptions, the pangolin often appears under the names shanjia, paoshanjia, chuanshanjia, jiapian, paojiapian, jiazhu, and paojiazhu.
I commit that I will carefully review my past articles and delete any passages reprinted from them that contain the medicinal material pangolin. For the rest of my life I will not use endangered species like the pangolin for any patient, including myself and my family. I also hope my colleagues in Chinese medicine and my patient friends will all voluntarily refuse to use the pangolin, look with contempt on those who selfishly eat pangolins, and report those who sell and eat them. Protecting species diversity, our biosphere, and our ecological environment is everyone's responsibility.
Finally, a word on the law. China's Criminal Law stipulates clearly: Whoever illegally catches or kills precious or endangered wild animals under special state protection, or illegally purchases, transports, or sells such animals and their products, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of up to five years or criminal detention and shall also be fined; if the circumstances are serious, to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years and a fine; if the circumstances are especially serious, to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years, a fine, or confiscation of property. I hope no one will test the law.