Will Familee Turn OFart Into a Fake Diamond?

[makapaaa]

Mar 11, 2010

From ashes to diamonds

Service comes at a price; gems have no commercial value

<!-- by line -->By Ang Yiying
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<!--background story, collapse if none-->SPECIAL KEEPSAKE
'I thought that to do a diamond and put it on a cross for her to wear - I think it speaks for itself.'
Mrs Chin, whose aunt-in-law's ashes were made into a diamond


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The late Mdm Chin Mee Ngo (left) and a 0.85 carat radiant cut diamond containing the ashes of a German woman. -- ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN

View more photos http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20100311/b5-2.jpg

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IN ABOUT six months, Madam Chin Siat Ngo, 83, will receive a special gift in memory of her late younger sister Chin Mee Ngo (above): a 0.4-carat diamond made in a Swiss lab from her ashes.
The gift from her son and daughter-in-law comes courtesy of technology that can 'grow' the ashes into a sparkler - the high temperatures in the lab in Switzerland extract carbon from ashes.
The final product sparkles like a natural diamond, but has no commercial value. It is more a keepsake of love.