Rapist's Penis, Anyone?

China officially admits executed prisoners are the basis of organ trafficking - AsiaNews/Agencies, 16th Nov 2006

• China’s government has admitted that an illegal traffic in human organs for transplant actually exists, but blamed it on the work of rogue surgeons. For this reason, it has called on the members of the profession to adhere to a “code of conduct”.
• Addressing a conference of surgeons in Guangzhou yesterday, Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu acknowledged that most organs harvested come from executed prisoners. He insisted that informed consent must inform organ harvesting, that donation be voluntary and done with the consent of donors or their families.
• “Under-the-table business must be banned,” Mr Huang said cognizant that too often organs come from non consenting parties and are sold for high fees to foreigners.
• China executes anywhere between two and ten thousands prisoners, the highest number in the world. And families have complained that the bodies of their executed relatives are not handed over.
• Human right groups have said some mainland hospitals have traded organs to patients in other countries, and foreign patients disguised as tourists have come to the mainland for transplants using organs from prisoners or other donors who had not given their informed consent.

Transplant organs removed without executed prisoners’ consent - AsiaNews/Agencies, 20th April 2006

• Charges against China are not new. Members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement have repeatedly said that prisoners from a labour camp near Shenyang, where a transplant centre is located, are executed whenever requests for organs are made.
• Relatives who try to ask for the bodies of executed Falun Gong members are beaten or arrested since their movement is illegal. Instead, bodies are usually cremated. Moreover, under 1984 regulations, a prisoner’s organs can be used without any prior consent if no one makes a claim for the remains.
• In September of last year, the press reported that a Chinese cosmetic company was using skin from dead prisoners for beauty products sold in Europe.
• Chinese Deputy Health Minister Huang Jiefu acknowledged that most liver transplants relied on organs from prisoners in remarks he made at the International Conference on Liver Transplants in July 2005.

Last post of the day. If you ever think of organ transplant in China, do consider whether you want it from a drug trafficker, murderer or even a rapist.