China's Executed Supply Bulk of Organs

But Country Looking To Move Away From Harvesting Body Parts of Inmates

(AP)  China has launched a national organ donation system to try to reduce its dependence on body parts harvested from executed prisoners, who make up the majority of donors, state media reported Wednesday.

Organ transplantation in China has long been criticized as profit-driven and unethical, with critics arguing death row inmates may feel pressured to become donors, violating personal, religious or cultural beliefs.

The World Health Organization and international human rights groups welcomed the new system, saying it was in line with best practices in other countries and would likely help meet the needs of all patients.

The move is China's latest step to better regulate organ transplants. Medical officials agreed in 2007 not to transplant organs from prisoners or others in custody, except into members of their immediate families.

But in a rare disclosure about an industry often criticized for being opaque, the China Daily newspaper said Wednesday that more than 65 percent of organ donors come from death row.

Though the figure could not be confirmed with the government, Vice Health Minister Huang Jiefu has publicly acknowledged in recent years that most organs used for transplants are taken from executed prisoners, though only with prior consent.

Condemned prisoners are "definitely not a proper source for organ transplants," the China Daily quoted Huang as saying.

With the new donor system, launched Tuesday, the Health Ministry and Red Cross Society of China want to reduce that proportion by encouraging the normally hesitant general public to donate organs after they die.

WHO's top transplantation official in Geneva, Dr. Luc Noel, praised the Chinese move, saying: "We're eager to see the results and are very supportive."

Noel said a few other countries occasionally extract organs from executed prisoners, though he did not specify which. China's "reliance on organs from executed convicts was certainly not an option that could withstand time" and opened the way for abuses, he said.

Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch, said China's dependence on death row inmates for organs was so high because there has been no system in place for organ donations.

"All organ transplants had to come from somewhere," Bequelin said, noting the practice was riddled with problems. "If you're a prisoner and you're about to be executed, you do not have a real choice, especially in a system ... (that) is completely untransparent and notorious for abuses against prisoners, as the Chinese system is."

The new donor system will link potential donors with recipients and make public a waiting list of patients to increase transparency and fairness in allocating organs.

The system was initially being launched in 10 provinces and cities, including Shanghai, Tianjin and Xiamen and will eventually be rolled out across the country.

Voluntary donations remain far below demand, partly because of cultural biases against organ removal before burial. Only about 130 people have pledged to donate their organs since 2003, the China Daily said, citing research by Chen Zhonghua, an organ transplant expert with Tongji Hospital in Shanghai. Chen declined to comment when contacted.

The Health Ministry said it could not provide more information on the new donor system. The Red Cross Society of China would not take questions by phone and did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

[rf35]

This is good news! China is one of the most overpopulated places on the planet. People there should be allowed to die when an organ fails, not get a new one from a person who is going to die anyway.

[babooph]

With the "NEW FEUDALISM" in the States,no need for others to get their organs from their prisons-the EX US middle class can be the supply.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Shoot yeah! Buy me a nice house on acreage, and I'll give ya my kidney! I got a spare one.

[TheMasses2002]

I have a pigs heart, a horses foot and a beagles paw.
I don't feel so well ...............

[bobbyduck1]

alltropy and NEWCO123

This type of rightwing smear-lies are getting so old.

You need to cut back on Rush's Kool-aid, you are way over the limit!

[ffoulkes-2009]

The Rush's kool-aid comments are getting old too...maybe all involved could grow up a bit.

[woeisme1]

by incog-nito August 26, 2009 4:01 PM EDT
SusanStoHelit: Did you know that a lot of people executed in China are political prisoners imprisoned on trumped up charges? Did you know that China has the highest execution rate than any other country?

When you combine a profit-driven organ harvesting system with a justice system where people are executed for non-capital crimes, you can readily see that it's a recipe for serious abuses?
--------------------

Yes I can. Your comment is a wise and thoughtful one.

[alltropy]

Maybe Obama can start harvesting organs from "the rich", as he calls them and donating them to the illegal aliens he loves so much! That way when he grants 20 million of them citizenship they can vote for him.

[woeisme1]

Yeah! And maybe you can finally get a brain!!!!

[ffoulkes-2009]

Hrm...if you put an American Citizen's heart into an illegal alien's chest...what happens with citizenship?

[SusanStoHelit]

Why not?

If they're condemned, and they are killed - why are we throwing away organs that can save 5 or 10 people from an early death? Is life so cheap that we don't care about the people who die from this change?

I'm an organ donor - if I don't need them anymore, give them to those who do. People don't think of that enough - the mother of 3 young children who will be left alone, a lifetime of sadness from losing their mother - can be fixed with a simple donated liver. A father supporting a family and his parents with his income from hard work, dies rather than lives, for the lack of a donated heart. Think about your best friend, your mother, and think about if you want them to live or die. If we should take this person who IS going to die no matter what, and throw the organ that could keep your beloved alive into a trash can - or use it to save a life.

They make it clear prisoners can choose. So long as they make that a free choice without recriminations (and really, for a condemned man, what recriminations are there?) - what's the issue again? A random incoherent fear that maybe there'd be some coersion sometime and for that we let everyone die?

[tmittelstaed]

What's he in jail for? In the US the death row convicts are murderers, and many of them killed as a result of drugs - because they were drug abusers - and may be infected with any number of needle-sharing diseases such as Hepatitus, AIDS, etc. Do you really want an organ from someone who had an STD even if it was later cured? Do you think that the organs of such people are going to be as high quality as those of a young, clean guy involved in a car crash?

This is why people who have gone through chemotherapy are placed on the Red Cross permanent blood donation deferral list.

[incog-nito]

SusanStoHelit: Did you know that a lot of people executed in China are political prisoners imprisoned on trumped up charges? Did you know that China has the highest execution rate than any other country?

When you combine a profit-driven organ harvesting system with a justice system where people are executed for non-capital crimes, you can readily see that it's a recipe for serious abuses.

[rf35]

I really doubt they are going to stop executing people just because they can no longer use their organs for transplant. And in China, people convicted of capital crimes are less likely to be drug addicts than those in the US.

[SkirtLifter]

Condemned prisoners are "definitely not a proper source for organ transplants," the China Daily quoted Huang as saying. <YA THINK?>

With the new donor system, launched Tuesday, the Health Ministry and Red Cross Society of China want to reduce that proportion by encouraging the normally hesitant general public to donate organs after they die. <OH SURE THAT'LL WORK. SIGN ME UP! AND WHEN SOME RICH GUY NEEDS A KIDNEY, I'LL MYSTERIOUSLY DIE>

[ffoulkes-2009]

Wow...how many executions DO They have each year if they can support all their organ donations that way?!