Thread: Illegal Human Organ Trade from Executed Prisoners in China

1. The Issue
“Today, China stands alone in continuing the use of organs of executed prisoners for transplant surgery.”1 International organizations such as the World Medical Association and the World Health Organization regard the sale of human organs as inhumane and unethical. These organizations believe it is essential to address all concerns surrounding illicit organ trade and possibly invoke an international trade mandate to which all nations must adhere. Human rights organizations and numerous former Chinese citizens, like Harry Wu, assert that China uses human organs from executed prisoners to sell for substantial profit. The repercussions resulting from the lack of international laws regulating global human organ trade has caused a worldwide upheaval. Human rights issues encircling the illicit human organ trade as well as the effects of this trade in China and globally should be examined and analyzed.
2. Description
In recent years the rise in demand for organ donation has dramatically increased due to advanced medical technology. The latest technology introduced was a drug helping to control the rejection of the foreign human organ in a patient’s body. This drug, cyclosporine, has revolutionized organ transplantation. It was after the introduction of cyclosporine that China implemented its 1984 rule to allow for organ donation from executed prisoners. Unfortunately, modernization and advancement can facilitate and produce a double-edged phenomenon. The phenomenon related to transplantation is the illicit trade of human organs. The supply of human organs can not meet demands, and as a result, there has been an incredible rise of illegal human organ sales. This section will cover a variety of divergent issues related to human organ trade in China and around the world. I will first discuss the 1984 rule in China regarding human organ donation, and then introduce some of the effects of this ruling.
1984 Rule in China Concerning Organ Donation:
In 1984, China enforced the “Rules Concerning the Utilization of Corpses or Organs for the Corpses of Executed Prisoners.”2 The rule provided “that corpses or organs of executed prisoners could be harvested if no one claimed the body, if the executed prisoner volunteered to have his corpse so used, or if the family consented.”3 China has zero tolerance for crime. The death penalty is obviously legal in China, but what constitutes a crime punishable by death? Amnesty International researcher, Arlette Leduguie, claims that, “criminals are executed for minimal offenses.”4 “In the past years, individuals have been executed for demeanors that would barely justify a custodial sentence elsewhere, pig stealing, or theft, for instance.”5 Amnesty International asserts that the Chinese government is performing executions to expand the organ trade from executed prisoners. According to witnesses in China, criminals are regularly examined to select matches for waiting patients.6 “One prisoner, during his seven year jail term, told how he saw numerous prisoners being medically prepared for organ removal. On the night before the execution, the prison staff would take blood samples.”7
According to David E. Jefferies in his article titled, "The body as a commodity: The use of markets to cure the organ deficit," a Chinese government document explains the procedures used in the extraction of executed prisoners organs generates between 2,000 and 3,000 human organs sold per year out of an estimated 4,500 executed prisoners.8 Amnesty International reports that, “China put more than 1,200 individuals to death in 1999.”9 These figures translate into an average of over forty people per week.10 The explanation for the elevated number of executed prisoners is directly related to the current Chinese Communist Party leaders' decisions to eliminate crime in China. A South China Morning Post article claims that "The executions come after leading law enforcer Luo Gan urged police to strike hard to smash blackness and wipe out evil."11 The rising criminal activity in China is from higher unemployment rates and inflation due to economic development and reform. The Chinese government wants to extinguish crime before it becomes endemic.
“Throughout the 1990s, China executed more people than the rest of the world combined.”12 Human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch/Asia are outraged by the alleged human organ donation from China’s executed prisoners. In the article titled, Organ Procurement and Judicial Execution in China, the author states: “If criminal trials should be a matter of public record, the Chinese government should promptly comply with a recent formal request by the United Nations Committee Against Torture that it provide precise statistical data concerning the number of persons sentenced to capital punishment and executed in China. The authorities should also annul forthwith all "internal" directives ordering the secrecy of such statistics.”13 The negative repercussions from the reliance on executed prisoners to supply vital organs, exceedingly outweigh the feasible greater good. The greater good is compromised because the issue surrounding organ donation becomes complicated by the high cost obtained from the executed prisoners' valuable organs. The high cost involved has led to executions in China taking place in order to accommodate human organ recipients' needs or desires, not according to the prisoner's family's wishes.



Read more here:



http://www.american.edu/TED/prisonorgans.htm

So you're saying they are killing criminals that had minimal offenses in order to have more organs for transplants?

Originally Posted by davisjr1990

So you're saying they are killing criminals that had minimal offenses in order to have more organs for transplants?

Supposidly its only for serious offenses. But get this - China has many times more executions than anyone else in the world. Coincidence ?

Originally Posted by InspectorMorse

Supposidly its only for serious offenses. But get this - China has many times more executions than anyone else in the world. Coincidence ?

More than Texas when Bush was governor??? Damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn....that's gotta piss the Fuhrer off.

We have alot of catching up to do.:whistling:

Basically they are killing peple who shouldnt be killed to sell their organs. And guess who buys them ......................

The U.S.? :whistling:

Originally Posted by davisjr1990

The U.S.? :whistling:

The West in general is the market yes (including Europe) . Japan and Australia probably get a few. The problem is if your loved ones are going to die its going to be pretty hard to turn down any organ. A horrible business.

Originally Posted by InspectorMorse

The West in general is the market yes (including Europe) . Japan and Australia probably get a few. The problem is if your loved ones are going to die its going to be pretty hard to turn down any organ. A horrible business.

Oh they do things in the US too except they don’t kill them but they do take parts of love ones without your permission and you would never know it.

Originally Posted by freecell

Oh they do things in the US too except they don’t kill them but they do take parts of love ones without your permission and you would never know it.

Im sure but this thread is about China killing people to sell their organs. This has to be stopped ! We must make it illegal to buy these organs !