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China accused of selling organs of executed prisoners
Last updated at 22:07pm on 27.09.06
Led to her death: A Chinese prisoner is taken away to be executed
Shocking new evidence of the trade in human body parts has revealed how British patients could be buying organs from executed prisoners for £50,000.
An undercover investigation has found doctors in China are willing to sell organs from death row prisoners to foreigners in need of a transplant. The grisly practice add to mounting evidence of how human organs are being traded around the globe.
Only last week it emerged at least 40 British patients may have been given transplants using body parts stolen by a corpse-snatching gang. More than 1,000 bodies including that of veteran broadcaster Alistair Cooke, were stolen from US funeral parlours by the Mafia and sold for use in bone grafts.
The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency revealed that 25 UK hospitals bought tissue that could have been taken from these potentially-contaminated corpses.
Now a BBC team have exposed how foreigners can travel to China to buy themselves a new organ from executed prisoners.
A reporter posing as a man looking for a liver for his sick father, was told a matching organ could be made available within less than three weeks for £50,000.
Officials at the hospital in Northern China openly admitted where the organs came from. 'It's true we use a lot of organs from executed prisoners,' one official admitted.
'The prisoners on death row have done many bad things and before they die they give their organs as a present to society.'
He even advised the reporter to try to get his sick father to the clinic in time for China's National Day on October 1 as there would be an increase of executions in the run up to the event, which would lead to an abundance of available organs.
It is not clear whether any Britons have visited the hospital to buy an organ, but according to the undercover team the cafeteria was buzzing with foreign visitors.
Some 95 per cent of organs transplanted in China come from executed prisoners and the authorities insist each freely gives their consent prior to death.
However campaigners have raised questions over whether they are truly free to make their own decisions.
Earlier this year it was claimed some of the organs were harvested from prisoners while they were still alive.
Human rights groups said execution dates are being made to fit in with the needs of wealthy foreigners who want the prisoner's organs.
The British Transplantation Society has condemned the practice of using organs from executed prisoners as 'unethical' and 'unacceptable.'
It has warned: 'An accumulating body of evidence suggests that the organs of executed prisoners are being removed for transplantation without the prior consent of either the prisoner or their family.'
In response to the latest investigation, the Chinese Ministry of Health said it does not deny that executed prisoner organs are used in donations but would review the system to see if it should consider tightening the regulations.
Reader views (3)
I think that if the prisoner is genuinely guilty of a horrendous crime, recycling their organs is a sensible use of resources. We shouldn't feel too sorry for the absence of the "consent" of murderers and paedophiles. My concern is that some of these Chinese prisoners may have been innocent, or responsible for minor offences.
- Mary Thomas, UK
I find it interesting that you failed to mention the Falun Gong allegations that their members are being thrown into prisons and executed while alive for their organs. There is no consent sought. There is very solid evidence this is taking place.
- Jim Warren, Baltimore, MD USA
What's the problem?
- Frank, London
