Five state-run sanitariums and a research center kept a macabre collection of dead babies and fetuses taken from Hansen's disease patients, according to a report released Thursday.
Twenty-nine of the 114 specimens were probably slain after birth, the report says, adding that illegal abortions and autopsies were rampant at the six facilities.
The report was compiled by a third-party council set up by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry to investigate the government's quarantine policy on Hansen's disease that lasted until 1996.